I love encyclopedias. As a youth my parents bought a set of Compton's. They had only black and white pictures, but I remember the wonderful feeling of pulling them out of the bottom shelf of our bookcase, turning the crisp glossy pages, and going to faraway lands in my mind I would likely never go in person.
I remember how excited I was when in the 1970’s our local IGA store offered Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia. Each week after purchasing some groceries I paid a small additional amount and got one book of the set. I was so proud when I had my own complete encyclopedia set for just a fraction of the cost of the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the World Book Encyclopedia.
Funk & Wagnalls was the poor stepchild to the other two big brothers on the block. A set of the big two weighed well over 100 pounds, and my little Funk & Wagnalls set weighed about 70 pounds at the most. But to me the feel of a set of new hard bound edition books, no matter the version, with the crisp glossy pages, and the enormous amount of information in them was a feeling I will always relish.
In Psalm 119 I identify some of those same feelings I had when looking at an encyclopedia. The psalmist repeats over and over again the wonder and magnitude one has of looking at a book with its words, ideas, and the ventures into past, present, and future lands…the Bible.
See you next time,
Arlen
2 comments:
How books play a role in our lives--from childhood onward. The most amazing thing about reading the Bible is that, no matter how many times I read it, a previously hidden layer reveals itself to me each time. It's the book of God's thoughts, His history with us, and how we humans interact, miss the mark, fall down, get back up, reach for His hand, over and over. And the truly wonderful thing: He reaches back, over and over. That's love and the Book of Love records amazing things.
It's funny how much I love books, but I don't read that much any longer. I recently did start to listen to books on CD. I agree that the Bible and its layers have hidden treasures in every nook and corner showing God's love.
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