I have to admit that I’ve gotten a bit lazy lately as far as Bibles go. I have this giant, hardback, Study Bible that I used to tote everywhere; to Sunday School, Church, Bible Study. It was the one I’d read during the day for my devotionals or if I needed to looks something up. It’s full of margin scribbles, highlights, and church bulletins from about 5 years ago. That was about the time I stopped carrying it.
Now there are IPhone and IPad Aps and Google. I get a daily devotional delivered right to my email inbox and my Facebook feed. So why carry a giant Bible around when the thing I always carry in my pocket has the whole Bible in it? And anyway, they put the scripture up on the screen at church, so why bother with the big, clunky thing?
When my father in law, a lifelong bible translator, died last May, my mother in law gave my oldest son (his namesake, first grandson) his Bible. It is a large, black, worn, leather bible. It’s full of highlights, underlined scriptures, notes in the margin, and random things stuck in the pages.
It is like FarFar is still talking to his grandson, still pointing him to scripture, still explaining it, and still showing how it all fits together, even after his death.
That Bible is a gift and a treasure. It made me think about what I’m going to leave behind for my kids as far as my thoughts and what I’ve learned about scripture throughout my life. My IPhone? Are they one day going to pass my IPad around between the four of them and say “Wow, look what mom said about this scripture. How cool.” Yeah, I don’t think so.
So I went to my closet and pulled down that big, old, clunky, hardback, Study Bible. Because I want to have something to leave behind too. Something tangible. Something they can hold on too.
1 comment:
When Grandpa died, out of four (at the time) grandchildren, somehow I inherited his Bible. It was worn, and it had old clippings of inspirational poems and things of that nature tucked in there. I carried it to church and to college and used it until it very nearly fell apart.
I just can't get into the table phenomenon. I need a real book in my hands, something I can pass down to my kids and hope they find me in it. :-)
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