[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Thursday, August 1, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to the majority of you once again.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are all having a good day today or had one.

Before I give you the daily thought message for today, here's something a mite personal.  My father's people, before they came to the U.S. in the 1870's, were from Switzerland and Austria, and so it's just natural that on this date my thoughts turn to Switzerland's national day, as they call it.  It was on this date in 1291 that the three original cantons of Ury, Schwyz and Unterwalden decided to break away from being dominated by the Hapsburg family in Vienna, Austria.  Of significance here is that, although they formed what later became the Swiss Confederation, the people also insisted on having priests and bishops from among their own, rather than being ruled ecclesiastically from Vienna.  This they did, within the context of the medieval Roman Catholic Church.  This was years before such reformers as Zwingli, Calvin and others came on the scene.  Anyway, after 722 years, the "Confederacio Helvetica" Helvetic Confederation) still continues.  By the way, that country is, so far as I know, one of probably two countries whose official name is in Latin, with the other country being possibly Vatican City.  Switzerland is by no means perfect, but one has to acknowledge the first country in Europe not ruled by a crowned head.

Anyway thanks for reading this little bit of medieval European history.  And now to the introduction of the Daily Thought article.

The author of the piece you're about to read, Katherine Hauswirth, lives in Connecticut.  Although this may not apply to us blind folk, it is still an interesting read, or I hope it will be.  The name of her submission is entitled "What's In Your Bible?" and is rendered as follows:

Our pastor, Tim, shared something I hadn't heard before:  all manner of people bring all manner of old Bibles to the church.  Some Bibles are from nonbelievers who stumble on a Bible when cleaning out a garage or an attic.  Believers who "recycle" their old Bibles at church have either moved on to a less tattered version or aged into a large-print edition.  Even to many nonbelievers, throwing away a Bible just doesn't seem right.  Hence the church's abundant and mismatched collection.

A scrap of paper fluttered out of a Bible that made its way to Pastor Tim.  In faded pen and ink, someone had carefully written:  "God cured my spine, Tuesday, the 23rd of May, 1865." There's no more to the paper than that, but this simple statement of faith moved Tim to wonder about the person who wrote it and to praise God for this message of faith.  Was the believer a man or a woman? With what verse had they tucked in this meaningful note? Had the healing come in a flash or in more gradual fashion? The details are long lost, but this scrap of paper speaks volumes about praise, prayer and hope.  The message struck him so powerfully that his wife had it framed for his office, a tangible reminder of the work of God.

This story made me wonder what might be waiting in my old childhood Bible, the one I received when I was baptized at age five.  I've since received other Bibles, but this is the only one that's thick with memory.  Mom encouraged me to store precious things between its pages.

I find a soft, crocheted cross from a long-ago Sunday school event.  Several dried flowers represent the gamut of childhood milestones:  funerals of my father, grandparents, and a childhood friend, but also birthday and dance corsages.  Tucked in among the faded blooms I find a handsome black and white photo of Dad, who died shortly after I received the Bible.

There's an open envelope with a solemn statement written on the flap:  "I will open this on December 31, 1981" (when I was 14 years old).  For several New Year's Eves of my youth, Mom encouraged my brother, sister and me to pen New Year's resolutions, to be sealed into an envelope until the following year.  The Bible, a place where our hopes would be surrounded by prayers, seemed the most fitting place for their wait.

The list of 10 items I penned in 1981 reminds me of how little my heart has changed.  I still want to avoid hurtful words, to reach out to others.  I still want to "make and keep many friends." I still want to be "very inwardly pretty, and maybe a little outside, too."

The list also alludes to things I have outgrown.  I desperately wanted to "candy stripe" (volunteer, complete with pink-and-white striped uniform) at the local hospital, and did so tirelessly until it was almost time for nursing school.  After 11 years pursuing a passion for nursing, my life took a turn that led me away from the hospital and into the writing life, an unexpected and different way to provide healing.

Sitting down to write those resolutions more than 25 years ago, I never imagined that I would live a life beyond nursing, that I would be called to use a different set of gifts.  But here I am, reading back on my "old self" and seeing that the "old parts" of my life are intermingled with the lives of others; all are run through with a thread of deeper love.

What I find between my Bible's pages speaks to me powerfully, as if each item absorbed some truth from the surrounding chapters and verses.  I turn to a postcard my mom sent a month before my wedding.  Mom shared this quotation from French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:  "Nothing is precious except that of you which is in other people, and that part of others which is in you.  Up there on high, everything is one." These words reflect how the words and pictures from those who love me are reminders of the ties between us, how we are all one in the eyes of God.

What's in your Bible?

And there you have it for today.  Just out of curiosity, do others of other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and others do the same thing with their sacred books? Just don't dare throw out an old Koran or you'll receive something you don't want.

And now until tomorrow when, Lord willing another daily thought message will be presented, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul