Almost anytime I grabbed that Book, before I cracked it open and held it’s thin pages between my fingers, I would cry. Somehow I knew, every time I turned to it, it was God I’d find. For in these Words He’s found. In these pages He speaks, and it’s His love letter to us. And like David, I’m overcome, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me…” Ps 139:6

And I lost it.

I brought it with me to Guatemala, and I lamented it’s loss. I cannot fathom where I left it. I never let it leave home, because it was falling apart, and it’s irreplacable. For the God given trip to Guatemala, I wanted those pages with me. I’ve had that well worn Bible for more than 18 years, with dog chewed corners and binding letting loose and pages toddler torn, mended with tape. It was a gift from my mama when she first introduced me to God. And all through it — written in the blank spaces — I filled with those words — rhema words I heard Him speak to me.

It cannot be replaced, and when I first realized its absence I was breathless. I asked around, and called airports, and only God knows where it may be.

But I heard His whisper through it. “Begin again.”

You see, I became familiar with where His words were on the page, and would become lax in reading it. Though I have the electronic Word, in any translation, at my finger tips, for me still, there is something about those pages — those tear stained, red letters.

It sat dusty on the shelf most days. And it became common. I heard a while back, and I cannot quote verbatim, but Beth Moore said it. She gets a new Bible every year, because she wants to begin again, begin new, fresh, to hear what He has to say.

So I stopped looking back, and I ordered a new Bible, the same study Bible like the one I love, though a new edition — the Ryrie Study Bible in the New American Standard Version.

And I’ve been dry. And I was unsure what to do in this place. I had no words. I didn’t want to tell you — He felt so far away. I felt like I’d lost my way, and didn’t know my way back. Of course I told Him that, because He knows the way.

The new Bible — it came just yesterday. I brought it with me in the car, where I am writing now. I cracked it open for the first time, and read some of His Words, again.

And I found Him.

Friends, I’ve learned something, again — I cannot have a relationship with God apart from His Word, for He is the Word. Open it up and He opens up. Lean in close, because He wants to whisper. To know Him is to know His Word. Falling back in love with God is to fall back in love with His Word.

Yes, for —

“In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God…

And the Word became flesh,

and dwelt among us…”

John 1:1,14a NASV

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