As Ramadan draws to a close (its last day is Thursday, June 15), those who are celebrating it will be taking time to remember its greatest night, Laylat Al Qadr.  On this night, centuries ago, the prophet Mohammad is said to have received the first of the divine revelations which would eventually become the Qur'an.  Laylat Al Qadr is a night in which God (Allah) visited and manifested himself to his human creation in a way, as Muslims, see it, he had not done so before.  It is a night of revelation, a night of divine unfolding, a night in which the distant and unknowable God expressed himself in ways his human creation could understand.
     In this understanding is Laylat Al Qadr's greatest contribution to humanness.  By affirming the possibility of revelation, Laylat Al Qadr reminds us that whether we believe it or not, God speaks.  God speaks through nature, God speaks through image, and God speaks through word.  Life is the speech of God.
     How much remarkable do I therefore find the apostle John's understanding of word, which he articulated several centuries before Mohammad walked upon the earth.  Not only does God communicate himself through the written word (which Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike confirm), John observed, but he communicates himself by showing us, directly and visibly in the person of Jesus, who he most deeply is.
     John showed us that although, as does Laylat al Qadr, we do well to treasure the words of God, we come to know God most fully face to face.