Well Loved Bible
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
On October 9th, our third graders received their Bibles in worship. It was lovely to see them come forward with their parents, excited to take this step in their faith journey. I especially enjoyed seeing the parents hand a Bible to their child, fulfilling the promises they made in baptism. I love to see those Bibles get used and battered, written in, highlighted, and carried from home to church and back again as the kids grow.
I’ll never forget the time (in a previous congregation I served) when a church member came to meet with me in my office and brought her well-loved Bible. She set her Bible down on the table and I couldn’t stop looking at it; it was stuffed full of notes and post-its, was missing its cover, chunks of the binding were falling off, and sections of the pages were loose. I’d never seen a Bible so well-used. It made my study Bible from my seminary years, full of scribbles and underlined sections, look brand-new. When she told me she read Scripture every day and had read through the entire Bible multiple times, I believed her.
When their child is baptized in at Easter Lutheran Church, parents are asked, “As your child grows in years, will you help him/her read the Bible and understand how much God loves them?” Notice they aren’t asked, “Will you give your child all the correct answers about Scripture and never admit you wish you knew more about the Bible?” The Bible is an overwhelming library full of ancient literature that was written over many centuries. If you find it confounding and mysterious (and long!) you’re not alone. The place to start is to simply read it and look for the ways it shows God’s love to you.
I like to use children’s picture Bibles with all ages of people (my favorites are the Spark Storybook Bible and The Beginner’s Bible). Many parents begin or deepen their own Biblical knowledge by reading children’s Bibles with their kids. Children’s Bibles help visual learners, tell the stories in memorable ways, and they’re fun (many readers miss humorous passages in adult Bibles but children’s Bibles often highlight the funny parts). I like to see kids’ Bibles full of markings from crayons with loose bindings and torn pages. One of the picture Bibles in my office has the very first page about the creation story ripped out and every time I open it, that missing page reminds me Bibles aren’t meant to be pristine. They’re meant to be used so they may bless you throughout your life.
Pastor Jen Hackbarth