5 Minute Friday - Together

I love words. In particular, I find normal, everyday words that I use all of the time and that generally I take for granted, fascinating when I don't...

When, out of the blue, I really meditate and dwell on a word - considering its contexts and nuances, connotations and shades of meaning. Then a simple black chain of letters strung together and "printed" on a white screen metamorpheses into a rainbow and a kaleidescope, all at once!

Today's word? Together...

I've been thinking about that word this morning, ever since I saw Lisa-Jo had posted it for as the word for today's 5 Minute Friday.

Consider just some of its significance...

• bringing or massing in a single place as one - "We gather together..." and I hear the notes to a favorite song of thanksgiving begin to play in my mind.
• unifying, complementing and/or bringing into line one's resources to result in the the best possible effectiveness and efficiency - "Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah..." and I'm smiling as I remember the duet Haley Mills sings with herself in the movie The Parent Trap, while she and her twin sister connive to bring their separated parents back together.
• known by mutual and/or reciprocal relationship representing harmony or like-mindedness - "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3.3);
• being in or coming into physical contact, sometimes resulting in significant change (i.e. two chemicals mixed together) for the final product - "...from whom the whole body, being fitly joined together and united, through the supply of every joint, according to the working in the measure of each single part, the increase of the body doth make for the building up of itself in love." (Eph 4.16);
• regarded as a collection, where the unfied total is far more than the sum of the individual parts - "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mark 10.9);
• emotionally stable and effective, performing coherently while truly aware of, understanding, coordinating and synthesizing events/opinions/circumstances in the surrounding world - "And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases." (Luke 9.1).

Togetherness is amazing...

I think the thing I love most about the word together, however, is a grammatical thing that shows its powerful signifcance. Take the following sentence, for example:

The pastor, together with his church members, is working to meet the many needs of the refugees fleeing persecution in the north. 

"The pastor" is a singular subject and thus the verb tense of the sentence is singular. Even though the subject is then described by a parenthetical clause, actually making it plural, the verb tense remains single.

Hand in hand, where two or more work, move, agree, and function unified... as one... together... it is as though only one is doing the doing.

So true... because when that happens, it is so clear...

the All Powerful One and Only is.

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True confessions: The actual writing time of the text of this post was 5 minutes - give or take a little as sick little ones kept interrupting. Going back, double checking on verse and quote accuracy as well as finding the links I wanted to include... well, that definitely added time above and beyond.