TARA GIBBS | CONTRIBUTOR

Last fall, I received a text with nothing but a photo of the original, hardback, black and white English Standard Version Bible from my 23-year-old son. I replied with a single question mark. His response made me smile, “Mom, we are at Goodwill, and I saw your Bible.”

Why would this text have such an effect on me? I have made more parenting mistakes than I can number, but that day, I stopped to give thanks to God that when my son sees a generic, hardback ESV Bible at Goodwill, he associates it with the impact and reality of God’s living Word in his formative years. What a picture of God’s grace. And what a reminder of the importance of God’s Word in physical form. The God who made us as physical beings allows us to touch, feel, and see His covenant love through physical words on paper.

In this day where Bible access is incredibly convenient on our ever-present phones, it is easy to neglect the use of our physical Bibles. I confess my own struggle as a daily Bible-reading plan conveniently populates my inbox with clickable emails. I open the email, and a link leads me straight to a read-aloud plan with a devotional by Don Carson. What could be more convenient? I am a fan of using the audio feature to help me get through my longer Bible-readings. But there is something very personal and irreplaceable about picking up my own personal physical Bible, touching the pages, and hearing God’s faithfulness through these words for the last five decades.  “I read this promise, during this struggle, on this page in the upper, right-hand corner.” I open my Bible to a passage I memorized with my children, and pictures of God’s goodness flood my mind. There is no replacement for regular use of a physical Bible. Here are a few places and ways we can do so:

Encouragement to Use a Physical Bible

• Use a physical Bible in your personal devotional reading whenever possible. Reading comprehension, retention, and multi-sensory connection to the reality of God’s love and presence happen in a deeper way with our physical Bibles.

• Take a physical Bible to church with you and follow along with the sermon. It is good to have the sermon text printed in the bulletin or projected on a screen for those who don’t have Bibles with them. It provides accessibility and welcome. But, if you have means to do it, there is no substitute for following along in your own physical Bible. As your pastor preaches through a book like Exodus or Philippians you are going to remember things you learned in a different way the next time you find yourself on those exact same pages in your personal Bible reading. What you learn in God’s Word is going to layer and build pathways in our minds because God created in us in very particular ways—a reality science can give us a tiny glimpse into through brain mapping.

• Bibles are special books to be treated with care and reverence, and there are those who do not mark their Bibles for many reasons, but I am a fan of jotting things in the columns like references to parallel Bible passages or the definition of a special words like shalom or names of the Lord. When I go back to that passage it encourages me and helps me build my understanding. I also like to mark passages I have memorized and list them in the back of my Bible so I can review them.

• If you have children or teach children, encourage them to bring a physical Bible to church. Most churches publish the sermon text ahead of time. Have them open their Bible and find the passage before going to church. Consider reading it together ahead of time and marking the passage for ready accessibility. Or simply help them find it when you get there on Sunday morning. This will significantly increase the odds of a child staying engaged and absorbing part of the sermon. Even smaller children who are coloring a children’s bulletin during church will be proud to have seen where the passage is in their big-kid Bibles, and they will be building a wonder and excitement connected to God’s Word for them! Have colored pencils or crayons available so they can color something they are hearing or reading on a sheet of paper.
• Sunday school teachers can provide special encouragement to children who bring their Bibles to class. I made each child a special bag with their name on it to hold their Bibles, and there was a treasure box in the classroom with prizes for children who remembered to bring them. I loved to see excitement about bringing Bibles grow among the entire class.

• When you memorize Scripture with your children, make sure they are seeing where that Scripture occurs in their own Bible. If you feel comfortable placing a little colored sticky flag in the Bible, that can be a fun reminder of passages you have memorized together.

God made us physical beings and has given us many physical ways to connect to Him. The temple and the Tabernacle were physical reminders of His covenant presence with His people and the New Testament sign of the Lord’s Supper is another. God’s Word is a gift to be treasured, and a physical Bible helps us do that in a way we can only begin to understand.

I am thankful that seeing that Bible reminded my son of the tattered, heavily-taped hardback Bible he grew up learning God’s promises from. We have more Bibles in American homes than any other culture in history, but polls show we are reading them less than ever. As the old quip says, “A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to a person that isn’t.” May we be those who treasure God’s Word, store it up in our hearts, and carry tattered physical Bibles. The words William Cooper penned in 1779 still hold true today, “A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun: It gives a light to every age; It gives but borrows none.”

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash