I have had several Bibles in my lifetime.
One of these Bibles I got when I was in late elementary school. It has a turquoise leather cover and the binding is falling apart. I took it on a mission trip one summer and a girl's shampoo spilled all over it in the bus. It still has a blueish tint on the outside edge of the pages and you can smell a hint of head and shoulders if you sniff it. On one of the first pages, in a girl's handwriting (maybe the one who spilled her shampoo) someone wrote, "Hi Dougie!" Classic high school youth group flirt move: write IN someone's Bible.
This Bible means a lot to me and learned a lot as I read from it's pages.
When I turned 18 I got another Bible for graduation. This Bible was the one I use until last year. I grieved having to transition to a new Bible but it was just not in working condition anymore. Matthew 6,7, and 8 are completely missing from it, the front cover has fallen off, and multiple pages had been taped together because they were torn.
It had already been rebound once and I didn't think it could handle it again. This is easily THE book that has changed my life more than any other book I've ever owned.
Last night I had both of these Bibles with me to share their stories with our church.
Last night we began a 31 week journey through scripture that the kind folks at Zondervan, with the help of Randy Frazee have put together call The Story. Maybe you've heard about it. I'm particularly excited about it because it is going to lead our church through a reading of the Bible together in 2012.
So, as I grab the second Bible I described above last night, I was OVERCOME with emotion. Unexpected tears coming down my face, shortness of breath, kind of emotion.
It was one of the oddest things that has ever happened to me.
As I think about it now I am not as surprised by the emotion. Maybe it is a Bible for you but we all have things that connect us to larger experiences. This Bible serves that role in my life. When I picked it up and began to tell it's story I was overwhelmed by the ways that Scripture contained in those pages have changed my life. Forever.
I'm wondering:
What is the earliest memory you have of your own personal Bible? What do you remember about the pages you read in that Bible?
What are other "things" that connect you to the larger experiences of your life?
Or - How has seeing the Bible as a seamless story helped you understand it more fully?
1 comment:
My earliest remembrance of a Bible that meant something to me is a Story Bible that my mother and Grandmother would read to me and when I was old enough to read would read myself. However the Bible that I remember that had the deepest impact on my relationship with God was a Bible that I still have. Cindy gave me an NIV Bible I think when or just after we got married. The NIV version was fairly new at that time, and even though all of my memory verses are still in KJV format and language, that green NIV Bible from Cindy changed my relationship with God. It needs to be rebound and unfortunately, I don't "carry" because the electronic versions are so convenient. But the electronic version is not as good to me as carrying a Bible.
To answer the other question about what "are other "things" that connect you to the larger experiences of your life"--- I think becoming a dad and having children changed my view of God and my relationship with Him. I was able to see my relationship with God more clearly after having kids. And I realize that in the same way that my children's stories are part of my story, I realize that My story is part of God's story!!!How awesome is that??
jd
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