The B I B L E

I have one. I have more than one. I have several. I have my grandmothers, with her writings still in the margins and papers still flapping when I turn the pages. I underline, highlight, circle, copy and color code. I have it on my phone, in my car, by my bed and in the living room on the bookshelf. There is a blue one, one with no cover and several black leather bound ones. I have one from my grandmother when I was quite young and it’s a big print New Testament. It’s about time in my life when I need to use it to read the print.

I go to it when I am angry. I know the chapters that I read when my friend died. I keep it near me when I am working on studies I am writing. Now days I can google it and push a button and I listen as I drive.

We sing songs about it, put tunes to the passages and write more songs and poems about its meaning. There are moments it bothers me because it convicts me. There are moments it frustrates me as it seems like God is answering the promises in others lives and not my own. There are moments when something happens and a verse from it’s chapters leaps into my heart. There are moments when someone starts reciting a passage and I can finish it without even thinking . As hard as it is to memorize as I am older, it quickly comes back the verses I learned as a child.

The Bible. I can’t imagine not having it in my life and yet in the early days of the church they had nothing but what we call the creeds. They learned what they believed and recited it. They couldn’t have bible drills or memorize or underline their favorite passage. If they had a copy of the early scriptures they would be much coveted. Bibles in the early churches were chained and guarded as they were so rare…. I can’t imagine being without it…. would my faith be more defined if it were not as easily accessible? Would I anxiously wait for Sunday just to hear a passage read? Would I sit quietly in uncomfortable chairs quietly as it was read, almost afraid to breath?

I wish we read the scripture more in worship. I wish we would stop what we were doing more often and just read to each other….not Dr Suess, not Shel Silverstein but God. Just God who made me, who created the atom and molecules and babies and puppies and apple trees. The one who spoke the world into being but took a special moment to breath human life. And made us in his image…read about that God….

The B I B L E. Yes that’s the book for me

I stand alone on the word of God

The B I B L E