The Library

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you would know that I love books!  My kids love books and my wife loves books, which is probably the reason that they love ‘em!  I can fondly remember my Mom taking me to the library as a kid to find a good book for summer reading.  My wife always surrounded our children with great reads!  A few weeks ago as I stood in line at the library to check out a book, I had to chuckle as a young mother stood at the counter with her small son and together they were going through a tall stack of books that the boy had picked out to read.  My immediate thought was that if you multiplied that times four you could have almost the same experience that my wife and kids had every couple of weeks throughout the children’s childhood!

Piper always enjoyed reading to the kids.  In fact that is how I was introduced to “The Little House On The Prairie” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I would sit at the foot of one of the kids’ bed with the rest of the family as my wife read the entire series aloud.  Piper took the kids to all the bookfaires our ISP group was involved with, attended all the “Friends of the Sonoma County Library” twice annual book fairs through the years (in fact we still do!) and was always finding other interesting books to challenge the kids with. 

The funny thing is that you would hardly ever find her relaxing and reading a book on her own.  I guess she just loved to share the reading adventure with others!  When the two of us went up to our favorite place in the Sierras to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary, the kids made her promise that she would take some time and read while we were relaxing in the mountains!  I even took a staged picture of her reading for their benefit!

The Apostle John makes a comment about books at the very end of his gospel.  In John 24:25 he ends his written work by saying: “There are so many other things Jesus did.  If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.” (The Message)  That verse caused me to imagine walking into a multi-floor library whose shelves were filled with volumes that contained the written works of Jesus.  But then John stated that you couldn’t build enough large libraries to contain all the books that told of His mighty deeds!  That’s a lot of information!

As a Believer it is comforting to know that Jesus probably ministered to folks in just about any and all situations!  And while we may not have it written in a physical book, according to John 14:26 it is available to us through access to the cloud… you could say!  In this verse Jesus tells about the One whose job it is to “remind you of everything that I have ever told you.”  So think about that for a moment… Even though the particular situation that you are going through at any given time may not be referenced specifically in the Bible, the Holy Spirit who lives in every Believer knows what Jesus said about it and is willing and waiting for you to ask Him for the information you require.

Now that’s pretty cool isn’t it?  For the last week or so my wife has not shown much interest in eating her meals and swallowing liquid medicines (although it’s getter better now).  There have been a few times when it got me really frustrated when she would just hold the medicine in her mouth for quite a while without swallowing.  At one point I threw up my arms and cried out to God, “Lord I don’t know what else to do!”  Then in an instant I came back on line as I recalled I Corinthians 1:30 where it states that “God has made Christ to be our wisdom” (Good News Bible)  So I took a breath and said “Okay, so I do know the answer” and within a moment I had the thought of trying some peanut butter on a spoon which she took and swallowed everything!

That may seem like a silly example but it was in answer to a desperate need that I felt I had at the time.  You see, God loves you and me so much that He wants to meet our every need no matter how big or insignificant we may think it may be.  All we have to do is to ask and believe!  Remember, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to tell us what Jesus said about our situation!  So don’t give up, but instead give in to the source of your answer today!  His library is only a prayer away!  Have a good day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What WISDOM am I expecting today?”