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The Bible Without Words
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:63
My mother gave me a Bible.
A big one; leather bound and heavy.
I carried it proudly, especially to church. Everyone else had one and with mine in hand, I fit right in. After all, this was supposed to be the Word of God; an anchor in the day of trouble.
Except for me, it wasn’t.
When I opened it, there was nothing to read. The pages were … empty. The paper smelled sort of nice, but that’s where the joy stopped. No anchor, no power, no nothing. Just blankness.
All it was good for was to show off in church.
I still opened it a few times. When my bank account collapsed. When I longed for a better job. When I quarreled with my unpleasant neighbor. But the book never delivered for me. I found no meaning, no strength, no answers.
But one day, everything changed.
It was on a day when everything inside me broke. I realized life wasn’t about me. I was not God’s gift to humanity. I was a wandering star, spinning in the small universe of my own self-importance.
I sank to the floor in a dusty corner, weeping. My tears splashed onto the Bible I had tossed aside without care.
I opened it one last time, on impulse.
My heart skipped. My hair stood on end. The pages were no longer blank. Every leaf was alive with words that burned with warmth, love and meaning. And then I saw it: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.” *
Tears blurred my vision.
That big leather bound book, once empty, became the Living Word. And I, once empty, began to live.
Jesus, let the Bible be more than a book in my hands. Let it be life in my heart.
- John 8:12 KJV
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