A Message to Me

Many years ago, before I stayed home with my kids, I worked at the family business. It was started by my grandfather, Papaw, in 1976. It was a privilege to work there and I loved being a part of what he started. By the time I came along, he was long retired, but he still popped in from time to time. Those visits became more and more infrequent as the years went on and he began to lose himself to the dreaded disease, Alzheimers.

One of the last times that he came in to visit before his sickness became really pronounced, he came up to the shop specifically to see me. He didn't have a whole lot to say, but he placed a treasure in my hands...a  Bible that had belonged to my grandmother. 

My grandmother, Mimi, was someone that I never got to know. She passed away when I was one after a painful struggle with cancer. It was a loss that shook my family, and I miss the lady I never knew. 

More recently I've begun to really understand the need for a grounding in God's Word. I've come to rely on the solace provided by the Holy Spirit and by reading the promises and assurances of Scripture. Many times I will open Mimi's Bible, a worn black leather volume rich in the cadence of the traditional King James language rather than my more modern translation. At first I read looking to find a personal word from my grandmother. Of course, my first year on earth was her last and she was terminally ill, so it's not likely I'd find an actual letter to me, but I couldn't help hoping. No note has ever surfaced, but I still like to read the little notes in the margins or on the front and back cover pages, even if they aren't words specifically for me, they still came from her, my Mimi. 

Tonight I was sitting for a quiet moment. Just sitting. And I realized my grandmother did leave me a message. Not literal words from a gentle hand, but in the worn pages of her Bible. The pages marked, underlined, circled, the evidence of much time spent here. In this holy Book. Mimi never got to sing me lullabies as a baby, or tell me stories as a child, or share her wisdom with me as a married woman, but she didn't have to. Everything she would have said can be summed up in the worn copy of God's Word she read and reread. 

And her message to me? Read this book. In it you will find the promise of eternal life, you will find forgiveness, you will find perfect love. You will find marriage advice, parenting advice. You will discover the same sins that trip people today, also destroyed men thousands of years ago: learn from them. Write in the margins. Discover. Underline, mark and circle those ancient promises that transcend time. They will never grow old. Spend time in God's Word, and one day you too can pass on your legacy, a worn copy of the Holy Bible.