My nose itches so badly this morning. It is really driving me crazy. I think I have narrowed the cause to a lotion I used this morning that I have not used in many months. I typically use my mom’s homemade lotion, but today, the tube of Peach scented body lotion caught my eye. I noticed about a half hour later, the nose-itch.
Have you ever had an itch so bad, that the sensation of burning felt better? I think of a time I had a severe case of poison oak. I was miserable. Someone suggested dabbing rubbing alcohol on my skin with a cotton ball. It burned, but it also brought relief. That is a strange equation.
As the itch got worse this morning, suddenly I could hear Wendell saying, “Nosey company.”
Anytime my nose itched in our 35 plus years of life together, he would respond with ‘we’re going to have nosey company.”
Where on earth did that expression come from?
I tried finding the answer this morning to no avail. I do know ones nose can itch for reasons including allergies, colds, and environmental factors such as strong odors of cleaning products, and fragrances put in certain products. I’m convinced it is the lotion. And probably the artificial scent used in the lotion.
Itchy nose, nosey company.
Itchy palm, money is coming your way.
Itchy ears, someone is talking about you.
These expressions have been around for many years. In fact, some of the expressions we use today have their roots from thousands of years ago!
The Oxford English Dictionary credits The Wycliffe Bible, a 14th century Middle English translation of the Bible, with more early citations of English words than the works of Dickens, Ben Jonson, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, and John Milton combined. The Bible even outranks William Shakespeare in the OED, with evidence of a grand total of 1547 new words compared to Shakespeare’s 1524. (source: mentalfloss.com)
The numerous English translations and editions of the Bible produced over the centuries have likewise given us countless proverbs, sayings, and expressions, many of which have dropped into our everyday use.
Some are quite clearly religious—like O ye of little faith, a fall from grace, and love thy neighbor—but the Biblical origins of others, including the many we are going to look at now through the month of July, may be a bit more surprising.
Let’s start with “AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR”
If you do something at the eleventh hour, you do it at the very last minute. This phrase comes from Matthew 20:1-16.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went.
“Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
“And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’
“And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
“Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
“But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” ESV
This idea of the eleventh hour is a message to every single man and woman who has procrastinated or is procrastinating: take the opportunity Jesus has given you to accept Him and live forever!
There is a day coming when we will no longer have a chance to say yes, but just like the thief on the cross, in his “eleventh hour” he accepted Jesus and was promised eternal life.
I have a saying I say often when praying for someone or a situation that seems impossible. “As long as there’s breath, there’s hope.”
Friend don’t put it off, but if you have, it’s not too late. The sinner repenting of his sin in the evening, will have the same promise of the sinner who repented in the morning.
Whether you have been a Christian all of your life, or you are just a baby learning how-to walk-in Christ, you have the same reward. The length of your commitment is not related to the size of the gift. The gift is the same size for each and every one of us: Eternal life, on planet earth made-new, with Jesus Christ living with us. Amazing to ponder!
by Jeanette Stark – Monday, June 26, 2023.
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