My mom asked my what I wanted for my birthday a few weeks back, and I knew I needed a new Bible. The Bible I had been using was given to me, by my parents for my 17th birthday, and the years not been good to it's binding. That Bible had been source of comfort, of correction, of counsel, of courage. It had been there with me when I was on fire for God and was waiting for me again after my years of prodigal living. It has quite a few notes, underlines, highlights, and post-it notes in it. It opens easily, and I can quickly find just about anything I am searching for; well worn pages are easy to flip through.
Well, now I have a NEW Bible. It smells new. It's still attached to it's binding...firmly. The pages are crisp and semi stuck together still, and it's pages are free of all my scribbles. It's exciting, and can I say it, kind of sad too.
My old Bible opens up to read "This Bible Belongs to Kathleen Marie Percival, presented on the occasion of my 17th birthday by my mom and dad." I still had my maiden name, I had no idea who would be my husband, what my kids names would be or what they'd look like. I had no idea what twists and turns and times of being up to my ears in muck my life would take. It's been a good, bad, ugly, fantastic, grace and mercy filled amazing 12 years, and now it's like I am putting a piece of my life up on a shelf. Maybe I am being overly sentimental, but it's not just a book to me.
So now I open my Bible and it says this book belongs to Kathleen Marie Alvarado, date 6-12-10. What will this Bible see me through? What kind of things will God place on my heart as I read through His word again and again? What will I underline, and circle and scribble feverishly next to?
Thanks to the words on those pages, and the Author who wrote them, I have the hope of knowing that whatever life throws my way, I still have Him. I still have His word, and no matter how many Bibles I wear down in my lifetime, that will never change.
Yay for new Bibles! I still have my well worn purple Bible that I used in H.S. and into college. It is a book of treasures and wonderful memories...why I still look in there to read Proverbs 1:9 and what I have written there. May 16, 1990, I opened my Bible, totally randomly, and pointed to a page and said, "Who am I going to marry?" And seriously....I read this on that page: "They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck." We had dated once before, but I was still madly in love with Andrew Garland. In the margin I wrote, "marriage?" and the date. Well, exactly 5 years later...to.the.day., (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) he proposed and we were married 9 months after that. Cool story, huh? ;)
ReplyDeleteI totally remember that bible!
ReplyDeleteGina, I adore that story. I can't wait for Sofie to be old enough to soak up that story like a sponge!
ReplyDeleteCourtney, your name should also be in the Bible because you were a huge part of my life then. I should write it in there now =o)