My Bible, The Velveteen Rabbit and Becoming Real

Do you have a favorite Bible? We have countless Bible on our bookshelves—different translations, multiple copies of the same translation, different binding and covers, and an array of colors and styles. But I have a favorite.

In fact, I’ve written about it before. Last year in Share the Music, I wrote: I love my Bible…. This Bible, my red 1983 NIV, with its frayed spine and peeling cover, is my favorite. It is marked with pen, pencil, colored pencil and maybe even crayon. It is stained with tears and coffee. There are sermon dates and minister’s names scribbled in the margins….

Often when I think about certain scriptures, I can visualize where they are in this Bible, where the verse falls on the page. I’m so familiar with this particular Bible that I really don’t want to choose another when it comes time to study or read. This Bible is my friend. I’ve had it for over 30 years. It is one of my most prized possessions. For a long time, I put the dates that passages were used in sermons or teaching in the margins. My momma did that, too. She, too, used the same Bible for many, many years. It actually became a timeline for her spiritual journey. I remember leafing through her Bible after she died, noting the passages that had been preached on over and over again. Pastor’s names were scribbled in the margins, and now I find myself wishing I had kept up that tradition for as long as she did.

Perhaps the funniest thing I have written in my Bible is an entry made in 1990. It is written above Luke 10:25 and underneath the heading “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” I have neatly penciled in—Seth Johnson The Nice American VBS 1990. Apparently that year at VBS many of the kids including Seth, who was almost 4, thought that the Bible story about the helpful and kind Samaritan was actually about a "nice American." As a person who worked with kids, I wanted to remember that. Still cracks me up.

I am thankful for my Bible. The way it feels in my hands, and the way it feeds my soul and shapes my life. For 30 years I’ve touched its pages and read the words, but there are so many things yet to learn, countless mysteries to uncover, deep truths to apply, and abundant beauties to discover. I am challenged by that thought and encouraged by it as well. “For the word of God is living and active.” (Hebrews 4:12, NIV). Praise God!

Last year, my daughter Susanna helped a friend pick out and purchase her very first Bible. Sitting in my living room, I watched two strong young women hold their Bibles in their hands, caressing the covers as they talked about how much they loved their Bibles. I watched the first-time owner carefully turn the pages, and I smiled with joy as she pressed her face into the pages to take in its smell. And I’m praying that her love affair with this book only grows deeper and that the powerful fragrance of the Word of God will always be a part of her life.

My heart nearly burst when Susanna went to the bookshelf and searched for the Bible storybook that was her first Bible. She is loaning it out for a while, so that her friend can meet the heroes of Scripture and have a foundation and framework to begin working with as she reads her new Bible. Not everyone grows up having heard the stories of the Bible repeatedly. There are those who do not know the stories of Joseph, Abraham, Noah, Peter, Paul, Deborah, Sarah, or Rachel.

Thank You, Lord, for that reminder, and thank You that there are still those who love Your Word and want to know it. There will probably be a day soon when I will have to make the dreaded trek to the Christian bookstore in search of a new daily Bible. I think about it with trepidation. But until then, and even after, I’m hanging on this this one for my very life, and I’m going to keep loving the words right off the pages.

A passage from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams applies to me and my Bible: “Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. Sometimes it hurts, but when you are Real you don’t mind being hurt. It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time….Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. Once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”

You see, my Bible may be “loose in the joints and very shabby,” but I’m becoming more real.

Do you have a favorite Bible? How are you becoming more real?