To Have and To Hold

We have quite a collection of Bibles: NRSV, Jewish Study, Parallel, CEV, NIV, Illustrated, Annotated Study with Apocrypha, Amplified, Spanish-English, The Message, and sometimes more than one of the same verision! Bearing in mind we don’t have to prepare sermons or make a living parsing discrete details from the scriptures, and considering the benefits of Bible Gateway and Oremus offering instant variations on the Internet, it really makes my assortment seem excessive. But I’m stubborn about wanting a Bible to hold in my hands, not an e-reader, not a netbook, but a real book with pages and substance.

There is one Bible to which I return over and over, which was a gift, not even one that I chose for myself. I like its study notes; I really like the tabs that help me find those challenging books like Habakkuk, Philemon, or Amos. With its leather cover it lays open easily and even has my name embossed on front. But what makes this one my favorite is that stuck within random pages are photos, poems, clipped sections of a bulletin, lyrics to a song, bookmarks, and even cartoons. In an uncharacteristic mood to organize, I looked through to see if I should decrease the amount of keepsakes. There was a photo of Margaret paddling her canoe at the women’s retreat, a photo of Royanne talking, a photo of hundreds of Origami cranes hanging above a communion table, a photo of Evan in his Marine dress blues with Spencer, the lyrics to “Screen Door”… Instead of taking things out, I found things to add: A graphic of a whirling Dervish, a birthday card with a remembrance from Anne, lyrics sang with my chicks, a bookmark with a star, and a piece of cloth from Advent.

I love this version of the Bible; written and unwritten, the message is love.