Some of us Christians keep a journal/diary while we read the Bible for the purpose of documenting the truths we have gleaned in that moment of reading and also for the purpose of documenting what we have learned over time. Keeping a journal of our relationship to God’s Word, therefore, can be a fruitful way of etching God’s truths deeper into our minds in particular and can also be a rewarding way of seeing God’s faithfulness through the course of our lives in general.
So, journaling about our relationship to the Bible can be a very good thing. But have you ever thought about it in reverse, such that your Bible kept a diary of you? Meaning, some of us keep a journal/diary about our relationship to the Bible, but what if our Bibles kept a journal/diary of its relationship to us?
I know that might be really weird to think about. But imagine that your Bible kept a diary about you. Of course, this is a fanciful thing, as a Bible cannot actually write in a diary. But imagine it real quick. What if it documented how you treated it? If we think through the perspective that the Bible would have towards us, maybe it will reveal more about our own bad habits than we would personally like to believe or admit.
Let’s just say that the following diary entries come from a Bible that sits in the home of an average Christian in America:
January 15th: Been resting for a week. A few nights after the first of the year, my owner opened me, but no more. Another New Year’s resolution gone wrong.
February 3rd: The owner picked me up and rushed me off to Sunday school.
February 23rd: Cleaning day. Dusted. Put back in my place.
April 2nd: Busy day. Owner had to present a Bible lesson at the society meeting. Quickly looked up a lot of references.
May 5th: Grandma is in town. Such a comfortable place here in her lap.
May 9th: Grandma made a tear fall on John 14.
May 10th: Grandma is gone. Back in my old place.
May 20th: Baby born. They wrote his name in one of my pages.
July 1st: Packed in a suitcase, off for vacation.
July 20th: Still in the suitcase. Almost everything else taken out.
July 25th: Home again. Quite a journey, don’t see why I went.
August 5th: Cleaned again. Put in a prominent place. The minister is coming over for dinner.
August 20th: Owner wrote Grandma’s death in the family record and left an extra pair of glasses between my pages.
December 31st: Owner just found his glasses. Wonder if he’ll make any resolutions about me for this next year.
Now, I wonder what the diary of your Bible would say about you. What would it write down about how you have used it?
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The following blog is inspired by James McDonald’s 2nd sermon in his “Why I Believe The Bible” series.
