Page stains

When the basket of bananas on our table got past their prime, I faced a decision: banana bread, or banana bread? Pulling out my baking supplies, I got out my favorite recipe book and turned to the page with a tried-and-true recipe. In fact, it bears permanent pureed banana and canola oil stains. Dump in this, stir in that--soon the loaf was in the oven.

My “food-autographed” cookbook reminded me of a story I once heard about some parents who had an out-of-town emergency and had to leave their kids with a trusted sitter—one old enough to cook and run the household.When they returned, the kids raved about how their sitter cooked all their favorite foods.The mother took the sitter aside and asked, “How did you know what were their favorite foods?”

“I just looked through your cookbook,” the sitter said. “I cooked whatever was on the pages with a lots splatters and stains.”

Sometimes when I go to a memorial service, the minister will hold up the Bible that belonged to the person who died. What a joy when they can say, “So-and-so really loved God’s Word. If you looked through their Bible, it’s full of underlining, stars, notes, and even family names by verses.”

As a youngster, I had this mistaken idea that writing in one’s Bible was akin to sacrilege. After all, wasn’t it the “holy” Bible? Then, as a young adult, I came under the influence of godly older women who cherished their well-used, well-marked Bibles. That took care of the silly notion that it was a sin to mark up one’s Bible! Now, in a few places, the thin pages of my Bible probably suggest some wet stuff falling. Sometimes I’ll find myself so gripped by a passage that my eyes “sweat” (as one friend puts it). But those wrinkled dots on a page are reminders that God is real and that He takes notes of those tears. My deepest emotions (even the wet ones) matter to Him. Sometimes there may be no solution to my concerns on this side of eternity. Sometimes, there is--as the Israelites discovered in the seemingly impossible dream of returning to their homeland after the Babylonian captivity: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy” (Psalm 126:5).

Splatters and stains in your Bible? They’re a good thing, a reminder that the Bible is tried and true.