The Good Books

"the words of God...

the knowledge of the Most High"

Numbers 24:16

I love reading.  But even more than that, I love books.  I say that because I own books that I've never read.  I have every intention of reading them, but it's possible I never will.  And yet I own them. 

I also own books that I have read, some of them only once, that I don't plan on ever reading again.  It's not that I didn't enjoy them, or didn't learn from them, it's just that once was enough.  And yet I haven't given the book away because I want to be able to find something I know I read there.  It's there for my remembering, or my research. 

But I'll be honest: some of them are on my shelves because I like the look of them, the smell of them, the feel of them... Often, what I love about a book is the idea of it, or what it represents.  Books represent knowledge, or truth or beauty in some way, and I love that about them. 

Now here's something fun:  to think about the Bible not as a book, but as a collection of books.  What a beautiful collection that would be, each of them, separately published, in hardcover, on my shelves.  Genesis, Esther, Psalms, Isaiah, Obadiah, Luke, Titus, Revelation... Each with an intriguing and appealing cover giving a glimpse to the contents. 

Some of them are harder to read than others.  Some are more interesting.  Some I've read many times, some only once.  Some are welcoming, some are intimidating. 

Winston Churchill said, "If you cannot read all your books, at any rate, peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are.  Let them be your friends; let them be your acquaintances."

That's good advice.  We don't have to love every part of the Bible, but we should be acquainted with each book.  We should know who wrote it, and what it's about.  Let it fall open where it will.  Read from the first sentence that arrests your eye.  Be comfortable with every book.  Let each be your friend.

Knowledge, truth and beauty, in every book.

~ "Search from the book of the Lord,

and read" ~

Isaiah 34:16

~