As I have been thumbing through my Bible to prepare what I am going to write, one of the things that I had not really paid much attention to before is how worn out it is.  The edges of the pages are tattered.  Some pages are torn.  The binding is loose.  The cover looks like mice got to it.  But it is filled with notes in the edges.  Dates.  Underlining.  It's like a diary of my life.

But the most notable thing is how some pages are still white and others are yellowed and stained with whatever I spilled on them when I was reading and rereading.  Some parts of my Bible are just simply worn out.  Obviously, some parts of the Bible have been more important to me than others.

One year when I was teaching High School seniors at a Cristian camp called Falls Creek--which incidentally is the largest Christian camp in the world--I realized that I had packed everything except the above mentioned Bible.  Maybe it is a security blanket, but whatever, I had to have it.  I had too many notes in the edges.  So I called Ken, and he and a Christian friend who is also a pilot  got in a plane and flew it down to me.  They landed on a strip the size of a postage stamp,  handed it out the door and then took off to go home.  That is how important this particular Bible is to me.  It's the one I am using to blog.  It's a Thompson's Chain Reference Bible, and it's been with me since 1964.

When I memorize a verse, I underline it in green.  So as I have been flipping pages, I have been refreshing some of those "Green" verses in my mind.

"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee."  Psalms 119: 11.

 I doubt if packing all my shoes, clothes, toothbrush, makeup and pajamas, but forgetting my Bible was a sin.  If it was, I sure got punished.  The anxiety and stress alone were pretty horrible.  There I am ready to teach hundreds of High School Seniors the next morning--without my Bible.

I was thankful for two guys who were carrier qualified who could get it to me.  "No problem." they said.  "Piece of cake."