Abandoned, packed away, and forgotten.

So for a while I was without a car in San Diego. Not a good place to be. Remember the Missing Persons song “Walking in LA”? Same thing. One day I left a book on the bus. So I called the transit department and was told that they kept them at the Oceanside station. So off I went the next day. When I arrived a woman brought out a box of about 40 books mostly bibles. I asked what they do with them and she said that every couple months or so they would throw them away. Well, I always had need for Bibles so I asked if I could come by and pick them up. I did this for about 3 years. Every couple months I would go by and pick up the Bibles. There were some for other denominations that were translated for their denomination and others that were companion books. Most of those I recycled. Still better than throwing away.

When I moved to Nashville I picked a little orange Gideon’s Bible out of the Bibles I collected mostly because I liked the orange color. I didn’t know at the time it was the Tennessee State color.  It traveled with me on my first and every trip to Nashville but then it was thrown in a box and lived there for about 8 years. It stayed in that box every time I moved. When we were going on the VO trip to Africa Mama Amanda said we should bring a pocket Bible with us. The little orange Bible came to mind so I dug it out and remembered the story of where I found it and how it had been in a box for years.

Off we went to Africa. The first day the group was doing a skit about the Good Samaritan and the narrator, Emily, asked if anyone had a Bible? Really,,, I was with about 20, what I considered real Christians and the only Bible we had was the little orange one. I don’t think Emily liked reading it. It is pretty small after all. I know she didn’t forget to bring one after that. Well on the first Sunday we were able to go to church with Pastor Isaac and as he was preaching he mentioned the Word of God was a weapon. You can use it to shoot Satan, pull it out and defeat the enemy when they attack. He asked if anyone had ever seen one of the little ones the Gideon’s hand out? Well, guess what came out of my pocket ? I will never forget him holstering it in his belt and pulling it out and shooting Satan’s voice, shooting discouragement, shooting lies, shooting anger, shooting evil.

In his belt it would go,

Out it would come and pop, the word would overcome whatever the enemy was sending against us.

Bang, bang, bang,

We were laughing so hard. Cheering, all the time I was thinking about the little Bible, once abandoned,  moved over and over again, often forgotten, packed away, alone, being used again on the other side of the world for what it was created for, encouragement, teaching, healing, laughter and freedom. How often is God’s word just like this? I thought of myself and so many of my friends. How we are so much like the little orange Bible. Just waiting to be picked up, dusted us off, and go.

So in about 5 hours I leave again for Africa. Next to me in the mesh netting of a pocket of my book bag sits a little orange Bible. I really feel like it is smiling, like it is happy to go once again the far reaches of the world. I know this is weird, but I think it knows what it is going to do. I think it always has, I can’t wait to see the rest of the story.