Choosing
a favorite book would be like picking a favorite child–impossible.
Directly
across from me are a dozen books that my mom purchased
for me as a child. I believe they were part of a supermarket
promotion. Tall and slender, with explanatory notes in
the margins, they include such titles as “Swiss Family
Robinson,” “The Call of the Wild,” and “The Jungle Book.”
I treasured those books as much then as I do now.
Dozens
of reference books sit to my left. Many of them I purchased
as a ministerial student years ago when my passion was
as keen as my innocence. These books gave balance and
depth to my interpretation of Scripture, for which I am
grateful.
Behind
me are two dozen Bibles. I feel guilty for owning so many
when some people have none, but I cannot get rid of them.
My dear late grandmother, Ruth Schutter, gave two of them
to me. I open them up and imagine her deep spirituality
flowing through me.
I
once asked her how many times she had read the Bible in
its entirety. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I know that
I’ve read it every year since our church had a campaign
saying ‘Read it through in ’62.’”
I
just found another Bible on my shelf. I believe it to
be my first Bible, a large print New Testament and Psalms.
My
grandparents gave it to me when I entered school and first
began to read. By accident, I gave it to my dad upside
down, so the inscription is on the back rather than the
front: “To Steven from Grandma & Grandpa – October
21, 1966.”
I
vividly recall that evening, lying on the living room
floor reading the gospel of John for myself for the very
first time. I open the pages; it is a strange feeling
to look at the selfsame page. Forty years ago my own young
eyes read these same words about Jesus.
I
was merely a child; what did I really know about life?
For that matter, what do I know now?
All
I can say with certainty is this. I have learned and unlearned
many things since I was six years old; but what was real
to me at the age of six is still real to me today: “Jesus
loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
