Old vs New

I've reverted, because there are some times that old-tech beats new. Don't get me wrong, I'm the www.biblegateway.com girl - any translation, any language, search engines. Instantaneous sharing on Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and who knows what else!

Yet - it can't compare to the weight of a book held, feel of leather cover, rustle of pages turned, and slowing my pace.

The box was on the front porch yesterday when I got home. I was puzzled because I didn't remember ordering anything from Baker Book House. A phone conversation with my mom clarified things - without giving anything away, she said, it was something that was on my Christmas list that she wanted to do for me. Well, who can wait for Christmas, anyway?

Old versus new. I have Bibles - I'm actually kind of a collector - but desired a fresh start. My well-worn NIV study Bible is marked - physically with pen, markers and the occasional coffee or tear stain. It is also marked spiritually, the dates in margins map my journey peak to valley to peak... I love that Bible, but set it aside because of its many notes from my first marriage. Desperate prayers for salvation of a stubborn, wounded man. Anguished prayers for a marriage that could not be saved.  The wounds stopped bleeding and scarred over; I don't want to open them again.

Long into this happy, no-longer-new second marriage, I want to stay on the journey looking forward, not back. Fresh, NIV Study Bible pages will take me deeper into wholeness. God is the God of new creation, as II Corinthians 5:17 tells me. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here!" God is the one Who writes my story, Who is my future and hope. New pages, a story that God continues to write on my heart.

And what I really want for Christmas is this: to leave this Bible with my mom when I see her later today. To have her inscribe it to me in her still-beautiful handwriting. To have her mark her favorite places as a reminder that God intersected us here on earth as mother and daughter, and that He has joined us for all eternity as His children. For we both:

"Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, the sheep of His pasture."