Every Once-In-A-While

A few days ago I did something I hadn't done in years.  I opened my Bible and began to read the first chapter of Genesis.  I read until I was tired and then I went to bed.  The next night I picked up where I had left off and read a few more chapters in Genesis.  And on the third night ... and on the fourth night.

 Then I missed a couple of nights and today I can hardly wait to read again.  But I don't know what made me pick up the Bible and begin at the beginning last week.  I'd read the Bible from cover to cover three times before in my life.  The first time was in my teens (I wasn't your "typical" teenager, I guess).  Then I read it again in my later twenties when I experienced a renewal of my faith.  In my early forties I went back to school for a Masters degree in counselling psychology and chose to study at a faith-based institution.  One of the requirements for my basic Bible courses was to read the entire Bible over the two semesters of the first year.

These days I read daily biblical passages, usually those prescribed in the Church's three-year Lectionary rotation, on a fairly regular basis.  I participate in Bible studies and faith-sharing groups, and even a prayer group I belonged to for many years focused on the Sunday readings.  It's not as though I've ignored the Bible since I last read it from cover to cover.

But now, almost fifteen years later, fairly late most evenings, I'm reading it that way again.  

 I think the Spirit draws me to it in a deeper way periodically but I have no explanation for why it would be now.  Of course, I could have said the same thing about the other times.  No reason; just picked it up and began one day and then continued reading until it was done.  I guess there are times when it just feels like something I need to do, maybe because sometimes I need the bigger picture.

All of the old Testament is about why we need Jesus.  It's the story of human beings and their on-again and off-again relationship with God.  I like my writing to be real, grounded in real people, and and all about our real responses to the predicament of being human and living in a world that once was perfect but is now a real mess, thanks to what we've done with it.  And there's no better place to learn all of that than in the Bible.