The Bible looked tattered, torn, and worthless. Its pages were marked with an array of colors, underlined with ink, smeared from the wear of numerous page turning. Open the Bible to any page and it looked like the photo above. True, some pages were apparently read more than others, but every page had the color highlighting, notes scribbled, and the markings of a red ink pen which seemed to go in straight lines from one verse to another.
The Bible was in the hands of a lady nearing her 88th birthday. She explained the meanings of the various colors which highlighted the verses, and continued to show me how she connected the verses with colored ink, to show how the verses were related to each other. All her reading and underlining and markings were there for the purpose of helping her understand and learn. One thing still sticks in my head was her confession that no matter how many times she read a verse and come to the conclusion about its meaning, it seemed God would bring new meanings and greater understanding as she read again from those familiar verses.
Then she told me of the smearing and the running together of the colors. She said most of that happened when her tears dropped to the pages. She admitted some were tears of sorrow when she was convicted of sin, but most of the smearing was from tears of joy, when she realized how much God really loves her.
I will admit her Bible shows more signs of use than mine. I do quite a bit of Bible reading, but obviously there is a need for me to read with more intensity and with more intimacy. Perhaps we all need to reacquaint ourselves with the Word of God, seeking his will, determining to be obedient.
I am not saying her way of marking up the pages with colors and lines is the only way to make it more real, but I knew I was in the presence of a lady who took every word of scripture to have an application for her. Perhaps we should all bring ourselves closer and closer to God's message for us.
<ronbwriting@yahoo.com>
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