Treasured News Articles
During the culling of my home office/library, once again I engaged in reading treasured articles. From the very old and brittle scrapbook pages of my grandmother’s collection, it was wonderful to read the truthful recorded accounts of stories I had only heard! There was the record of my great-great grandfather’s tragic death. I read of the resignation of my grandmother after teaching for ten years in Morgan County, Ohio to accept a job teaching at West Park, Cleveland, Ohio before her marriage to my grandfather. There are articles of my grandfather graduating from Ohio State University Medical School, and enlisting in the Army for duty during World War I. I read of the engagement of my grandparents, their marriage ceremony, and then his departure for Europe for duty at a medical base in France. I found an article of his return, his purchase of the medical business in Pennsville, Ohio, and the beginning of their family. While I’d been told all this before and believed it because of the respected ones who related the stories, it was wonderful to read about them, and now retain the record for future generations whose interest may elevate as has mine in the family history.
It occurred to me that reading the Scriptures is much like reading the news articles of truthful stories related to us from our youth up. (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15). The stories of the Old Testament come to life when we read them and rehearse in our minds the actions of those ancients. The deeds of Jesus throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John become more personal when we read them, and imagine ourselves the recipient of His miracles, or His teaching. The reading of Acts becomes more direct when we read and understand the importance of preaching only the gospel of Christ and realizing our obedience to it and it alone saves the soul. Reading Romans through Jude becomes the proof needed to direct our lives in righteousness. We know those of ancient times did so, and reading the text gives us the proof of their perseverance and dedication to faithfully serving our Lord Jesus Christ. Reading Revelation grants us the realized hope of eternity with God, provided we endure as they endured unto the end!
As well, reading my grandmother’s scrapbook of newspaper clippings, I learned things I’d never known. As I read the details of various events, or the praises rendered to those deserving of praise for their accomplishments, or even the obituaries of various notables, I realized these events and people meant something to my grandmother. She undoubtedly knew them well, and perhaps engaged with them in some fashion. At the very least, she appreciated both the events and the people enough to retain the record of both for her memory, and for granting that information to those who would retain her treasures after she departed this life … folks like me who have a passion for learning all I can learn about my forefathers.
Is that not another valid reason for being an avid student of God’s word? Think of the hundreds of details He left in His record of events and people. For example, in Grandmother’s saved clippings are seemingly meaningless notations of “So-And-So was a guest this week of So-And-So,” Just a simple notation, but one that lets the reader know of that association. Did you notice the several times the New Testament makes a glancing note of a name or event, just so we know it was important to Jesus, or Peter, or Paul, or some other? How exciting it is for us to find these treasured news articles in God’s word!
Sure, her treasures include things that leave more questions than answers. For example, I’ve searched for years to find a place called “Deaver’s Gulch” where she, her siblings, and their spouses, and occasionally my dad and uncle would picnic. I’ve learned there was a large cave near that spot that was purported to have a cache of property stolen by riverboat pirates in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. No one is alive today from my family who visited that spot: and I have to date found no one that knows of the place. Still, the evidence is there that such place existed, was visited, and the memory recorded by someone who experienced it.
The Scriptures offer the same challenges at times. Archeologists consistently find artifacts of ancient cities and proof of things we can but otherwise imagine. I’ve seen recovered “foot lamps” mentioned by the psalmist (Psalm 119:105). How wonderful it would be to find the exact location of where Jesus fed five-thousand, or to observe the Ephesus of old where Paul and Timothy preached. There are many tangible incidentals within the scriptures that intrigue us but will never be discovered. For example, the coin that Peter took from the mouth of a fish to pay taxes for himself and the Lord, or Paul’s coat, or the boat Jesus slept in (the only time you find Him sleeping!) Alas, such tangibles are not to be found and thus we are left with the more precious material: the word of God that grants us faith to believe all He has written for us to learn, to obey and by which to live (see Romans 10:17; 15:4; 2 Peter 1:3).
I appreciate the retention of these old clippings and yes, I’ll retain them for myself and whoever may wish them after I’m gone. But more important to me are the sixty-six books within that most sacred of all books, the Bible. From these retained pages are the words of eternal life (John 6:63). I don’t need the tangibles to believe the written word; by reading it again and again, I garner unshakable faith, and to that faith can add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. By the eye of faith, I can travel where they traveled, observe what they observed, hear what they heard, believe what they believed, and obey what they obeyed. Yes, I can and must fill my mind with God’s word and its realities and by treasuring them within my soul, know His promise of not only comfort and peace here, but eternity with Him!