A Good Read

One of my absolute favourite things is reading.

 

I can happily lose myself in a good book for hours on end.  I love how I can get lost between the pages.  I love the vivid descriptions of places which carry me away.  I love the detailed depictions of characters, which are so realistic, it is as if I know them as real people.

 

I have been reading a really good book over the last few days and am just pages from the end, but I've been deliberately reading slowly, longing for it to last a little bit longer because I'm enjoying it so much.

 

There are very few books that I will read over and over.  I tend to think there are so many I want to read, why waste my time?  But there are some which I will happily lose myself in again and again and again because I love them so much.

 

I was talking with a friend the other day about our attitude to reading books and reading the Bible and how different they often are. 

 

Often we can feel reluctant to read the Bible, because we feel that we've read bits of it before.  Some of us have even read the whole thing before.  We know what happens.

 

But when we read the Bible, it is not so much reading a book as entering into a conversation.  Each time we come to read it and re-read it and re-re-read it, it speaks to us in a different way.  Different words and verses and passages stick out and resonate with us when we had simply skipped over them in the past.  New meanings and implications strike us with every reading.

 

Because it is the living word of God.

 

"For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

[Hebrews 4:12 NIV]

 

 

When we read the Bible we are not just reading a dusty old book written by an ancient author.   We are reading the words of our living God, the creative author of our lives.

 

Now that's a good read.