More Insight

Insight

(Dragonfly Ministries President, Mary Hamrick)

January 2007

"God's Words 2 "

I was raised to respect my Bible and to treat it as the treasure that it is. I was taught to never place anything on top of the Bible and not to place it on the floor. At times, I remember thinking that giving so much attention to a book was going a little overboard, yet that was my upbringing, so I obeyed.

Years ago, my friend Jan told me that her Pastor always asked for a person’s Bible when he was asked to preach / officiate at their funeral. He explained that he could tell a lot about a person’s spiritual journey by turning the pages of their bible. This statement made a great impact on me, and I realized that it is okay to write, underline and highlight words and scripture in the Bible. I learned that it is okay to make notes in the margins of the pages. And with that new “permission”, I began using my Bible as my spiritual journal.

The Bible I currently carry was given to me in 2002 by my husband, Andy. It is the best Bible I have ever owned. In the margins, I write sermon notes from various worship services, I write prayers, revelations from the Lord, I also write the names of family and friends who come to mind as I read certain verses. I’ve had friends write their names beside verses in my Bible so that I would remember them by that particular verse. My Bible is truly a journal of my spiritual walk and I rarely travel without it. I carry it on airplanes when we travel and I pull it out and read it during flights. I just don’t ever want to be stuck somewhere without the Word of God at my fingertips … If the Lord speaks a word to my heart, I want to be able to use my Bible to help me discern what He is telling me. My Bible signifies to me God’s Word, His promises, my intimacy with Him, His presence. I have often said that if our home were to catch fire, I would make sure the family was safe, then grab my Bible and then my photo albums. Everything else could be replaced.

In traveling home from Florida this month, we checked our bags at the airport but I kept a canvas bag with me that contained my Bible, a pen and notebook. The canvas bag went through the baggage inspection xray, was retrieved and sent back through a second time. A security guard was called over, and my canvas bag was handed to the guard for further inspection. The bag was emptied and all of the items were inspected, one by one, and then placed, item by item, in a tray to be sent back through a third time. As I saw my Bible being inspected, the pages tattered and torn from usage, loose pages and sections falling out of the spine and onto the table, I joked to our sons that perhaps there was a scripture that God wanted to use to touch her (the guard’s) life. But as she continued to inspect, the thought entered my mind, “where would I be if, for some reason, my Bible were confiscated and I wasn’t able to carry it onto the airplane and take it home”. I remembered the notes and prayers written in the margins, I remembered the names and dates beside scriptures as I had prayed those scriptures for people, and I watched the security guard continue to turn through the pages, inspecting my treasure. And as she continued to inspect, I began to fear that the tattered pages would become more tattered, that more pages and sections would become unglued from the spine, and I stepped closer to the guard, quietly, as if to say, “Be careful, that is mine, please give it back.” The security guard looked at me and said, “step back”, which I did, but the tears flowed as I realized that I was not in control of the future of my Bible. Someone that I didn’t know was in control of the situation and it was completely her decision as to whether my Bible would return home with me or go into the trash can at the airport terminal.

At that moment I realized that, in some countries around the world, it would not be an unusual occurrence for one’s Bible to be confiscated, for the pages to be deliberately torn out and destroyed. “Oh God, please don’t let me ever take your Word for granted. Please allow me, if need be, to take your Word to places where your Word has never before been. Open the door to the world, Lord, that those who are hungry for you, that those who are seeking you, will be given the bread of life in Your Word.” As the tears flowed down my face, I turned away from the guard because I didn’t want her to see I was in tears and as I turned away, I heard my husband express to the security guard with a smile, “It’s a good book”, to which she replied, “I know, I read mine every day.”

I don’t know why a Bible that has traveled with me from place to place since 2002 and has gone through numerous inspection xray machines would have to be inspected so closely on this particular trip, but I am so thankful that the hands it fell into for inspection were hands that turned the pages gently, that understood the priceless content of the pages, and that knew that this indeed was a good book; the best ever written. When my canvas bag was returned to me and I was able to inspect my Bible for myself, I found that the pages that had fallen out during the inspection had been placed back into the right place in the Bible, the bookmark had been put right back where it was before the inspection, and no harm had come to my prized treasure.

I still treat my Bible with respect, I believe that I always will, and I teach my children to honor and respect their Bible; I’m sure that at times, they think I’m a little overboard in my teaching, but today more than ever, I truly realize what a priceless gift it is to be able to carry God’s word with me, wherever I go, within our wonderful country of freedom.

Mary H.