How You Treat Your Bible Does Matter
I WAS LUCKY. I had two Aunt Louises. Both of them went by their middle names. One Aunt Louise was my father’s older sister, Almina Louise, and the other Aunt Louise was my mother’s younger sister, Virginia Louise. Both Aunt Louises’ played the piano. In fact, my dad’s sister was a district roving music teacher for part of her teaching career, and she directed several musicals. My mother’s sister was a student at the time. She accompanied the musical selections in these same musicals.
My parents were probably getting acquainted around that time. They went to sister churches a few blocks from each other in Glendora, California.
One summer when I was a little girl I spent a some time with my mother’s parents. They had rented a little cottage in Burbank to be closer to my grandad’s work as a heavy equipment operator in freeway construction. My aunt was going through a difficult divorce. She was in and out visiting us. I remember several scenes with her. I thought she was exotic looking. She was a cosmetician-beautician-hairdresser and mother to my infant cousin David. The two of us went for walks with her son David in a stroller. One time she bought me a packet of Walnettos. I could tell that my grandparents were anxious about her.
My Aunt’s Bible
My aunt would read in her Bible. She kept a red pencil and a blue pencil on the table next to her. Every so often she would stop and color in a verse with the red or blue pencil. One day I happened to look in her bible and saw that many passages had been colored. That impressed me.
I knew there was a reason she was coloring the verses. They had interested her in some way. I thought the red and blue looked beautiful, just like how I saw her as beautiful. The Word of God speaks to the soul. I witnessed that whenever I saw my aunt reading and underlining passages.
My aunt married again and had six sons altogether. Her life was not easy. She passed away from cancer at age forty-four (?). I saw her a couple of weeks before she passed when Grandma and I went to visit her. I was a student at CSU Fullerton the fall of her passing. Aunt Louise was beautiful and gracious even though she was seriously ill and in pain. I felt sad that she hadn’t had an easier time of it.
Those Dog-Eared Corners
Mrs. Lamb was one of those sweet saints of God. She was devoted to teaching children about God’s Word. Our family attended Grace Baptist Church in Chico, California at the time. Mrs. Lamb would teach us in the church library on Sunday afternoons right before the Sunday evening service. There were my siblings and me and a couple of other children. She’d sit on a chair and teach while we listened to her.
There was the time she talked about “dog-ears.” You know, those pages where the top corner is turned down. She explained that we should treat our bibles with care because it is God’s Word. She held her bible and explained about dog-eared pages. We opened our bibles and thumbed through the pages looking for dog-ears to flatten until they were smooth. She encouraged us to not fold the corner of any page and to use a book marker instead. To this day I make sure my bible’s pages don’t have any dog-eared pages.
Respecting the Word
Clyde C. our church’s then adult Sunday School teacher and I were talking between church services. We were discussing bibles. I told him what I had learned from Mrs. Lamb and how it stuck with me. He chuckled, then he told me he was taught to never place a bible directly on the floor. That was a new one on me, and I felt it had merit. The Word of God is precious. After all, it is the Holy Bible. From then on I never placed a bible on the floor.
I know that’s a small thing and probably doesn’t matter. But it matters to me. I feel like I am respectful of the Word of God when I treat it well. This afternoon I needed to respond to something while I was reading my bible and taking notes. I was in a hurry and the quickest thing would have been to put my bible on the floor. I didn’t want to do that for the very reasons already stated. So I grabbed a throw pillow and put my bible on top of it.
Not all people have a bible. Some countries in the world ban copies of the bible where it is illegal for anyone to have a bible. I have heard stories where one or two pages of the Word is all they have. They treasure those pages. We, too, should prize our bibles. I hope your take-away from this post is a renewed appreciation for God’s Word. It is precious and unlike any other book you own. Treat the bible as holy unto the Lord.
[Top Photo: Left to right, my mother and her sister at the Big Bear Lake cabin.]
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PRAYER REMINDER: THESE ARE CRITICAL TIMES: Some of you have joined with me to pray for our nation on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. or whenever you can. This week, please read Ephesians 6:10-20 before or during your prayer session. We are in a global crises that is spiritual, economic, social, political, and physical (pandemic). As Corrie ten Boone would say, God is Victor. Here is last week’s post on A Call To Prayer for those who missed it. Please join us. Your prayers matter.
