Sunday, March 16, 2025
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. ~ Romans 8:26-27
Written by Shirley Norris | Director of Communications
My Mother’s Bible
As a youngster, I received my first Bible from my Sunday School class. I was probably about six or seven years old. Over the years, I received additional Bibles from youth groups, friends and family members, and a Bride’s Bible from the pastor who officiated our wedding ceremony. I’ve always viewed our Bibles as private belongings, some with notes in the margin, others with copies of old church bulletins or special photos tucked within the pages. I often saw my mother tape newspaper clippings of births, deaths, and marriage announcements in the back of hers. What I didn’t know was how she noted the chapters that she had read over the years.
Twenty years ago this September, my Mom passed away at the age of 85 years old. I miss her every day. Between our visit to the mortuary and our meeting with her pastor, we stopped by her home to pick up a few things we needed. As I gathered items together, I saw her Bible, a gift from my father some 25 years earlier, where it was always sitting on an end table next to her favorite chair. Without thinking, I picked it up. Waiting for our meeting at the church, I opened her Bible and began to page through it. There I found a handmade bookmark, several pages of study notes, and her handwriting on almost every page. Wherever I looked I noticed check marks at the beginning of each chapter, denoting her having read that chapter, most with 2-4 checks and some as many as eight times. I kept looking, jumping from the Old to the New Testament. And without fail, I found those small check marks throughout her entire Bible.
Her Bible became her testimony to her pastor as he prepared to preach her funeral service, to friends who shared with me years later that they were inspired by her check marks, and to my husband, who continues to use her Bible today during his personal study time. The binding is broken. We handle it with much care. But the message is as loud and clear as it was when I first stepped into her private time with God. Her testimony comes from Psalm 119:11, I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.
Prayer: Dear God, may we all treasure your word as you have asked us to do. May we preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words. Amen.