WORD ON A HEAP

The grass withers,

the flower fades,

But the word of our God

stands forever.

Isaiah 40:8

Many of us live within a relatively short distance from all of the flooding and devastation we have had since the arrival of a hurricane up this way and have been keeping a close eye out on the situation. Where I live, there was heavy rain with minimal wind but our neighbors to our east didn't fare so well.

It's been a privilege to be prayer partners with hundreds of victims in this situation as well as getting survival supplies into those hard-hit areas. Somehow, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I'm sure it's of great encouragement, however, to so many who have lost everything....everything. Clothes can be replaced as well as dishes, bedding, furniture and appliances, but what of those things that have been gathered through a lifetime that in essence is a keepsake of one's life...pictures, baby books, wedding pictures, jewelry, grade cards, Christmas ornaments and on and on the list could go.

I saw one picture that just about did me in within the last few days. It's a picture of a close-up flood setting that seemed to be washed up branches and weeds. There on top of that dirty mess was an open Bible. It looked like it had really been through the flood with it's rips and dirt. There it was, open in what seemed to be sunlight of the moment. Two TN Tec students had found it. The home near the Bible had been leveled, but there was...that open Bible.

Can't say what thought process was when I saw it. For me in those circumstances, I don't know what I would do without my Bible. My Bible is such a friend and don't know what I'd do without it. I've looked at it a little differently since seeing that picture of that lonely, tattered, dirty one laying in the aftermath of a flood. We know God's Word lives on and ministers in the worst of times. For me, reading and loving it just doesn't seem to be enough right now.

Thank You Father for Your Word that is always available to us. I pray for that dear person who has lost their Bible that perhaps can be reunited with it despite it's condition. If not, that another copy would reach that person soon. Help us to appreciate Your Word, not just for reading but for living in us in both the good times and in the floods of life. In Jesus' precious name...Amen