“I Love the Bible, I Read It and I Do It”

I love the Bible – I read it and I do it – I read it and I do it…
I first learned this children’s song when my kids were little. We’d play the tape in the car and we’d all shout this verse together. Then we’d talk about how it isn’t really that simple, but loving the Bible is a great gift. For Christians, it is our metanarrative, I’d tell my kids (no, I wouldn’t really say ‘metanarrative’ – that came later – just wanted to see if you were paying attention☺). It’s our story – the truest story ever told, the only one that orients us to our lives because it tells us who God is and how he’s made the world, including us. It tells us about how Adam and Eve messed up, trying to take life into their own hands and do things their way, doubting that God was really good. (And the Bible says that we are just like Adam and Eve, which I don’t think is hard to see if we take a careful look into our hearts.) We’d talk about what the Bible tells us about Jesus, the Savior who was God born as a man (they seemed to totally get that when they were little). We’d remember that Jesus had to die, and that in his death, our sins died with him. And more amazingly than that, when he rose from the dead, he raised us from the dead with him. Our sins have died; we have new life. And it is this new life that makes it possible to ‘do’ things the Bible says, like be compassionate, kind, loving, honest and to not be rude, self-seeking, and proud. We even discussed how we aren’t perfectly able to ‘do’ these things – yet, but that one day, when Christ returns, we will be see him as he truly is, and we will be like him.
[This blog began with a desire to talk a little about Lectio Divina, but as you can see, it’s not where it went. The new year is a time many people make resolutions, some to ‘read their Bibles more.’ I pray we will. I don’t know how it works exactly, but I know when I start my day by soaking in some Scripture, my mind is re-oriented, freer, clearer, and my heart is changed. May we all be blessed with a deeper knowledge of who God really is and how much he loves us in this new year.]