The King Who Gave His Name to Connection

In 1997, Intel engineer Jim Kardach was struggling with a problem. Multiple tech companies had developed wireless devices that couldn't communicate with each other — different protocols, different languages, different standards. The industry needed something to bridge the gap.

While reading The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson, Kardach found his answer — not in code, but in a tenth-century Viking king. Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson had united the warring tribes of Denmark and Norway, bringing together factions that spoke different dialects and followed different loyalties. Kardach proposed naming the new unifying wireless standard "Bluetooth," and the name stuck. Even the Bluetooth logo is a combination of Harald's runic initials.

They named the most connecting technology of our era after a man whose life's work was bringing the divided together.

That is precisely what love does. Paul wrote that in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free" (Galatians 3:28). Love is God's Bluetooth — the protocol that connects hearts operating on completely different frequencies. It bridges the distance between parent and prodigal, between neighbor and stranger, between a holy God and broken humanity.

The world is full of incompatible systems — people who cannot seem to connect. But love is the standard that makes communication possible. The question for us this morning is simple: are we broadcasting, or have we turned our signal off?