My Bible

When I teach others how to study their Bible, one of the first things I always stress is the importance of actually writing in it.  Always use blue ink because it stands out next to the black text.  Never use a highlighter because it always bleeds through to the other side.  Underline, circle, make notes in the margin, and feel free to draw happy/sad faces to express your feelings.  A little unorthodox?  Maybe.  Think about it this way, what happens to your notes when you get home?  Where are they when you need them?  I can tell you where mine are; I’ve used them many, many times to teach, minister, write…

My husband bought me a new Bible about 8 years ago for Mother’s Day; it’s the New Living Translation.  If you’re not familiar with the NLT, it’s a kind of in-your-face translation and I love it!  The only other Bible I have had in my journey with the Lord was one that came from the Liberty Bible Institute.  It came free with some books my husband ordered and it had his name engraved on the cover.  Even so, I claimed it as my own immediately and I carried it for years.  That Bible was a King James Version; the version I cut my teeth on as a Christian and the version I always go back to while studying.  I had written many, many notes in that Bible.  I underlined and circled all the key words, and turned down the corners of some of the pages to mark the passages that were most special to me.  So, with the gift of a new one, I found myself having to transfer all that information to my new Bible; what a job!

Well, here I am all these years later and my once new Bible is, quite literally, falling apart.  A total of 301 pages have come completely out of the binding and many more are threatening to.  Every time I open my Bible, the loose pages fall out onto the floor.  It is frustrating for sure, but I cannot bring myself to part with it.  Too many years of sermon notes, prayers and my own personal thoughts are written in that Bible.  It feels good in my hands; I am comforted when I hold it.  Most of my experiences with God are recorded within its pages.  I don’t have enough time left in this world to transfer all this information.  Even so, my sweet husband thinks it’s sad and he wants to buy me a new one, in fact I think there are some people at church who feel sorry enough for me  to take up a collection for one. J I just can’t do it.  My brains are in that Bible!  I can’t seem to find anything in any Bible other than my own.  It’s like that mess we all have on our desks; it may look like a mess, but we know exactly where everything is.

My Bible and I have been through a lot together.  It has been stained with my tears, colored on by my youngest son, dropped in the mud, stepped on, used as a pillow, lost (and found), but most of all cherished.  I have written the names of people I love by the promises God has given me for them and, for some, I am still waiting for those promises to be fulfilled.  I have nurtured four of my own children and a number of spiritual children with it and now I am using it to teach my grandchildren.  I have been told that I can have it rebound but somehow I feel it just wouldn’t be the same.  It has become an old, reliable friend.  It has…character.  As I see it, there is more work to be done.  There are more verses to be underlined, more sermon notes to add, more happy faces to be drawn…God is not finished with either of us.

When the time does come that I can no longer read the words written on its tattered pages, or no longer feel its weathered cover in my hands, I am hoping that my Bible will find its way into the hands and hearts of my children and grandchildren and take root.   

P.S.  I finished writing this post Sunday afternoon before our evening church service.  Our pastor talked about how people need to be noticed; they need to know that they are not invisible, that they are important.  Right in the middle of his message - “SPLAT!” – the 310 pages of my Bible fell to the floor!  My daughter started laughing, my friend next to me snickered and began helping me pick them up.  The lady in front of me turned around to see what the commotion was, and my son said, “Mom, spring for a new Bible, P-L-E-A-S-E!”  My answer – absolutely not. J