I'm not real sure when I began to enjoy Bibles. It was long before I began to enjoy reading Scripture, I do know that much. When I was in the second grade I went to a 'Christian' school. Part of the requirements for going to that school was that each student had to have a Bible. I can't remember where I got my Bible or how but I do remember the Bible. It was black and had a hard cover. The inside pages were also black. I highly doubt that it was new. In fact I'm positive that it wasn't new. I think I was grown before I ever saw a new Bible.
My first Bible may have been an extra that my mother had or it may have belonged to my grandmother. It may even have belonged to a neighbor, friend, or come from a yard sale. I truly do not know. What I do know was that it was mine. I was supposed to use it for school. We had some kind of services every day in school and were required to have our Bibles for those services. It didn't take me long to discover that the fun in that Bible was connected to those black pages inside the cover. Ahh, the wonders of a white crayon, or white chalk, on black paper.
To my seven year old mind those services must have been boring. I can't remember them being boring but I sure can remember passing them with crayon or chalk in hand, coloring and drawing in my Bible. There were other pages just waiting to be doodled on, pages that were filled with pencil or ink. I don't actually remember writing on those pages but I had that Bible for many years and I can recall the writing that it contained, writing put there throughout a year in 'Christian' school. The only other think I remember about that Bible was that it was a King James Version and I couldn't understand a word of it. It may as well have been in a foreign language for all my childish mind could comprehend.
It was years later, after I was grown, before I discovered that Bibles came in anything but the King James Version. I made that discovery when I was reading someone else's Bible. For a while I would use that persons Bible when I wanted to read Scripture, which I must admit wasn't all that often. Then I went into my very first 'Christian' book store. I had never seen anything like it. I don't think, even as I walked the aisles of that store, that I understood there were many different versions of the Bible. Eventually I bought my very own Bible an NIV student Bible that I still have today. I know longer read that Bible but it has notes, and more importantly my children's hand and foot prints over the years, that I don't want to part with.
I was very happy with that Bible and never considered getting another one. That is until I found what appeared to me to be an amazing Bible at a yard sale. It cost me almost nothing and was the nicest Bible I had ever encountered (mine was a paper back, this one was imitation leather). It was a study Bible. I bought it and used it for years. That use was an on again, off again thing, I'll admit, but it did see plenty of use.
And as with the very first Bible I ever owned...I marked all in that Bible.
This time it was notes, cute things the children did or said, hand prints, foot prints, written prayers. Whatever was on my mind or heart at the time went onto the pages of that Bible. As with the student Bible, I still have that one too. The pages are starting to come out, there are places where it looks more like a journal or a coloring book than a Bible, but it's there, on my shelf, because even though I never use it anymore, I can't bear to part with it. Too many memories, too much learning, lie within its pages.
But somewhere between when I got my first Bible and when I retired that yard sale treasure, I discovered Bibles. Truly, wonderfully, discovered them. I would go to book stores and pick Bibles off the shelf just to look at them. I would flip through study Bibles for the joy and learning to be had in their notes. I would handle Bibles to feel them in my hand. I, quite simply, developed an enjoyment and interest in Bibles. I've been told I'm obsessed with them. My sister once said reminded me that a person can only read one Bible at a time. I didn't bother to tell her that sometimes I work from several Bibles at a time. My mother was on the phone with me once and asked me how many Bibles I had close by and I had to admit there were eight sitting beside me. To my credit I was in the midst something at the time and I was working with/in all of them.
I like Bibles.
I enjoy the Scriptures. I enjoy reading them. But I also simply enjoy the feel of them in my hands. I have favorites. Favorite versions. Favorite covers. Favorite Bibles.
I buy them when I want to and lots of times when I shouldn't. Most of my Bibles have been picked up second hand with a good number of them given to me. I picked up a tiny New Testament, free of charge, that was falling apart, because it has a hand written note in it about how it was the 'constant companion' of it's owner, whose name was inside it. That little Bible said more in it's condition than the note inside it did and I couldn't just leave it there. There was much to be said for a little Bible that had been someone's constant companion. How many hours did that little Bible rest in that woman's hands? How much comfort did she get from it? What did she learn from it?
Bibles simply fascinate me. They fascinate me for the words and the lessons...the very Truth...that they contain and they fascinate me because when we hold a Bible in our hands, we hold something beyond precious. And I find enjoyment in them.
Everyone has something that they enjoy. I enjoy Bibles (among a few other things). From that enjoyment I began to get the idea of writing about the Bibles I encounter. I am well aware that there are many Bible review sites out there. I read a couple of them. When the idea first came to me to review Bibles I told myself there was no point. It's been done. It's done by many people. But then I bought a new Bible. A Bible that you can't walk into your local Bible store and buy. I came across a Bible from the nineteenth century, a Bible that survived the Civil War, and I was able to buy it for a very small price (less than 10.00). I have no idea what it's worth. It may be worth way more than what I paid for it or it may be worth way less than what I paid for it. But it was worth the price for me. And as I looked at that Bible the first time, the idea came to me that since so many of my Bibles are picked up second hand, these are not Bibles that other people are reviewing. I have Bibles in my home that no one else has. These Bibles may not be special to anyone, or they may be special because they are the word of God, and only because they are the word of God, but they are Bibles that no one else has. Now, that isn't the case with all of my Bibles. I bought an ESV Study Bible just the other day. It was on sale for a very deep discount and I had read enough reviews on it to think it might be useful in my writing and Bible study. Even still, I read many reviews on it and even watched videos that showed it, before I gave in and actually bought it. I don't hesitate to pay a dollar for a used Bible, even if I know I won't keep it, but when I start paying fifteen dollars and up, I think long and hard before I invest in yet another Bible. My sister was almost right, I really can only use so many Bibles at a time.
And sometimes I buy Bibles because they are next to free (or free) and I want to read the notes someone else wrote in them, or I want to look at it a bit more than I have time to do at the store. I have been known to buy a Bible at a thrift store, keep it for a few days, then pass it on to someone else. I have also been known to buy a second hand Bible with the intention of getting rid of it and wind up keeping it. And on occasion I will buy a brand new Bible because it fills a need I have, or think I have, at that time. I own too many Bibles. Some will stay, some will eventually be passed on to others. And I know that I will continue to buy Bibles when I find one that catches my attention.
I also have a tendency to hold a well used Bible in my hand and wonder at the history behind it. Just last winter I came across a Bible that predated the Civil War in an antique store. I did not buy that Bible but I did enjoy looking at it. This Bible was as new as if you walked into a bookstore today and picked up a Bible. It was a very different kind of Bible and the pages were discolored with age but there was no more use in that Bible than there would be in a brand new Bible. And as I looked through that Bible, which did happen to have a couple of names in it so maybe it had slightly more use than a brand new Bible, I couldn't help feel sad at the thought that that copy of the Scriptures had survived so much over so many years and didn't look as if it had ever been used.
Out of all of that, old Bibles, New Bibles, falling apart Bibles, came the idea to share my enjoyment of Bibles in a blog. I have no idea if others will ever read anything I write or if there is a place for yet another Bible review blog but the idea to do this has stuck with me and so I started a blog where I can share my enjoyment of the Scriptures, just in case someone else wants to share that with me.
And if nothing else, I can always have this to look back on and shake my head at the number of Bibles that pass through my hands.
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