Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The B-I-B-L-E

Over at By the Lamp Light, Lora shared a beautiful poem about her new Bible. Her post got me thinking about my own well-worn copy of the Word. When I opened it one day last week, I noticed this tell-tale crack in the binding.


Umm...I've already forked over the big bucks to recover this Bible once, and I'm sure Big Red might balk at me recovering it again any time soon. In fact, his response the first time was, "I would have bought you a new Bible."

I don't want a new Bible.

I want this one.

Big Red gave me this NIV Study Bible on our first Christmas as a married couple, which means it will turn 16 this year.

We have a long-term relationship, this particular Bible and I.

It's been been left on the top of our car (twice) and has been returned by kind strangers who found it in the ditch.

DD#2 used it for writing practice during those toddler years when no surface was safe.

The new puppy used it for chewing practice.

Our cat usually just likes to sit on it when I'm studying, but the other day she decided to use it for claw-sharpening.
(Can you tell I leave it lying around open in dangerous places, a habit I should have broken by now?)

Its pages have opened for countless Beth Moore studies.

I've marked it, poured over it, cried over it, pondered it.

The real issue, of course, isn't the relationship I have with this particular Bible.

More accurately, it's the relationship I have with Word itself.

I don't just want to underline it and weep.

I want to sow it deep.

Then, even if this copy and I have to part, our time together will remain fruitful.

Blessings!
Ginger

5 comments:

  1. I have many Bibles, but one that is The ONE.
    I have wept tears in it.
    I have laid my head on it while praying intercessory prayers and actually fell asleep on it! Nothing like having the Word as your pillow.
    I loved the scribbles on Psalm 139. That is a perfect Psalm for her to autograph for you.
    Be blessed, sweet one. twinkle

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  2. Ginger,

    Happy St. Patrick's Day from Dublin!

    Mrs. Dominy

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  3. Ginger, I love the pictures of your well loved copy of the Word! I am still so attached to my familiar copy of the Word. I wanted to share with you that I have been considering my new copy for 14 months - I can not believe it took me that long to actually purchase it. I had many of the same feelings as you. And AMEN to Twinkle using the Word as your pillow - oh yes ma'am many times, many times! I have not even written in my new copy yet and my *old* copy was like your well marked pages.

    My heart so agrees with your wanting to sow the Word deep. Just take root in me LORD and bloom and grow, allow me to learn all there is to know!

    Blessings to you dear one. Abundant blessings!

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  4. I love the pictures of your Bible. So many have had a "touch" on it in some way. It's been lived in...so to speak. I have several Bibles but I can't honestly say there has been one in particular for me but I've always wanted that. Hmmm....

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  5. Oh Ginger! I loved reading this. I love that your husband bought you the Bible and that your kids wrote in it and that it's all marked up from your studies. I saw a sign on a church before that said "A damaged Bible is the sign of a person who is not."

    I don't know why, but this post really touched me today. Perhaps because we've been so busy this week and my Bible has sat for a few days without any attention... kind of like an old friend that I miss but haven't made time for.

    Thanks for this girlie!

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