When you look at the Grand Canyon it’s there in view. It’s there when you’re viewing Niagara Falls. It’s there among the wonders of Carlsbad Caverns. Wherever you are, you’re looking at it—but it’s become invisible to you because you’ve trained your mind to blot it out. What is it? Your nose! Just look down at the corner of your eye right now and you’ll notice a pink blob—that’s what I’m talking about.
We take many things for granted and, as a result, they become invisible. Some are essential like our noses, others are just too insignificant to worry about, like the little scars on our fingers. But there are some things which, though they have become commonplace, are not to be ignored. That fine crack in the wall could reveal a structural fault that will bring the building down if ignored and not investigated. That innocuous looking mole may have turned malignant while you were ignoring it and it could cost you your life.
For the Christian in today’s world, there is a plethora of Bibles in view. Every Wal-Mart and bookstore has shelves stocked with them You cannot travel without seeing them in hotels and motels. Every home has several. But for many of us it’s only when the Bible class begins or the preacher refers to a passage that we open our Bibles. Some won’t even bring a Bible to church and won’t reach to the rack on the pew to pick one up. We’ve become used to ignoring the Bible as a commonplace object.
The Bible is way too important to be treated thus. “It is the power of God for salvation” says Paul (Romans 1:16). He tells Timothy that it is “inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter, in writing to the Christians in the dispersion, says “I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder … and I will be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind” (2 Peter 1:12-130. What he was writing was too important to be neglected.
Yet the Bible is neglected and we’re all guilty from time to time. So spend time with the Good Book today and through this week. Open it when you’re in your Bible class. Follow the Scripture reading in your open Bible. Have it on your knee, open to the texts being used during the sermon. Let it be, as the Psalmist says: “A lamp unto my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Carry your Bible. Open it. Read it.