Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, August 3, 2024
A couple of weeks ago on my usual post-breakfast walk, I was striding past a house and happened to glance at an open upstairs window. There, stacked neatly on the edge of what might be an old-fashioned school desk, I saw a stack of books.
I didn’t linger long to gaze at them, but I took a surreptitious photo and went on my way. I decided that if I ever got a chance to meet the people who live there, I would probably instantly like them. At least we’d have a love of books in common. In late June Shelley and I paid a visit to Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon, which is probably the largest used-book store in the nation.
And when I zoomed in on the original of this photo to see if I could read titles (I couldn’t), I discovered that these volumes are old, and well-thumbed.
Books have often been called windows on the world. As they’re stacked there near a window, on view to passers-by like me, each of those tomes is a window on a topic. Maybe one is an algebra book, opening to view a subject I have always found dark and forbidding.
If you want an interesting experience, read through Psalm 119. That’s the longest psalm, and the longest chapter in the Bible, and it has just one subject—God’s word, God’s law.
Here’s just a sample . . .
How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O LORD!
Teach me Your statutes.
With my lips I have declared
All the judgments of Your mouth.
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.
I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word. (Psalm 119:9 – 16 NKJV)
There! Did that open a window a little wider into God’s laws? It has for me.
Why not make reading God’s Word a daily habit?