Handle With Care

  



         At my first holy communion in the second grade, the custom was to receive a Bible. It was my uncle who provided me with one and I remember being somewhat disappointed for it was pocket size and very unreadable. I cannot remember why it was that I wanted a regular Bible but it was a genuine desire that I can recall today. In grades three through six we would attend Mass every morning before school and I did have a missal that was a prized possession. I liked its smell, the thin delicate pages, the red and black printing and particularly the Latin that was recited from the altar and responded to by us in the pews. In high school we were given two paperback textbooks, one the Old Testament and the other the New Testament and we studied them for their literary content. I still had no concept of the Gospel and no personal Bible of my own. Scan ahead to about 23 years of age where I had come out of the army and started at Pitt. My habit was to stop in the National Record Mart on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and browse their books before catching the bus home, often coming out with a purchase and one day it was a modern language paperback paraphrase of the New Testament titled Reach out, The Living New Testament. I have this paperback in my hand now and can remember the feeling then of holding something special but not really knowing what that was. My first Bible was a Christmas present from my wife and I also have that Bible in front of me now.
          I related this story before of how in 1982 my wife and I were on a Caribbean cruise and while rounding the western end of Cuba we were in a storm that rocked the ship such that we driven back to our rooms. With nothing else to do, I opened the drawer in the table next to the bed and there was that ubiquitous motel room Gideons Bible. I opened it up and began reading where my finger found itself resting. Glasses were sliding across the table from the ship rocking in the waves and I read this from the 93rd Psalm:

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

       As a new Christian, God was gracious to give me this glimpse of His Word through an unorthodox method, a method that I would not presume upon today for I now know that the Bible is God's Word to us...God breathed words. Without the movement of God's Spirit in us, they will seem to be just words, but under the power of His Spirit their meaning not only begins to become clear but they reverberate every atom of our being and every neuron involved in our thinking. Consider these words from Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
       If one wishes to remain in rebellion to God, one would do well to not pick up His Word for, should God will it, it would make very clear the folly and repercussions of holding on to our own autonomy and it will convict the conscience. On the other hand, if one desires to see just what is in this perceived time capsule it will be an illumination that is easy on the eyes, sweet to the pallet, exhilarating to the touch, soothing to the ears and of a pure aroma of cleanliness. It is powerful and will remain powerful even into old age. It is provision for all that we will need on this journey. It is nourishment. It is radiation to kill cancer cells and minerals to build bones. It is exercise, laughter and fulfillment. It is knowledge and understanding, precision and order, intellect and emotion, humility and motivation. It is oxygen to the Christian life but it is kryptonite to Nietzsche's uberman. It will not only cause you to love but define love itself. It will bring division in the world but discerning that division will show unity of redemption to all who are under the shed blood of Christ. So, the next time that you pick up a Bible, please know that if you are not careful, an ax may be laid at the root of your paradigm of life.