Scripture and Scrapbooks

I am an avid scrapbooker. My husband would say I'm a rabid scrapbooker. I say I'm just passionate about what I do. I have scrapbooks for each segment of my life. I have one that covers all the churches I've served. I have one with pictures and mementos from all the musicals I've been in. I have one for my daughter's first year, one for her graduation, and one for her years at Salem Academy. I have one for my husband's family, one for each of the kids and one for the grandkids. I have a wedding scrapbook, and one of all the houses I've lived in. I just completed one for my mother's 80th birthday - and she was thrilled.

One thing I've learned over the years is that scrapbooking is a process. When you first start out, your layouts are fairly simple, and your pictures need cropping and lots of embellishments. As you get into it, you begin to take better pictures and pay attention to more detail in the printing process. At first, you just want to get the pictures in the book. As you grow, your layouts become more complex. At first you try to put as many pictures as possible on a single page. As you grow in your knowledge of the artistry and beauty of scrapbooking, you begin to build a whole page around a single picture.

As I prepared to teach my two Bible studies this week, I found myself comparing Bible study to scrapbooking! (Imagine that!) My two favorite things - scrapbooking as a metaphor for Bible study - how awesome is that? You see, some students come to the Bible as I did to my first scrapbooks. They jump in and try to read as fast as they can so they can say they've read it all. Their interpretation is often just a soundbyte type of blipvert, taking pieces of the Bible out of context. Their understanding is simple, and needs lots of trimming and embellishments: a Bible dictionary, a Bible commentary, a good Sunday school, a mentor, a pastor. All these and more can help our understanding of what we read.

As we grow, we begin to get a better picture of the Bible as a whole. We begin to pay more attention to the margin or footnotes. We remember sermons, songs, or classes we've taken. Our understanding becomes multi-faceted as we grow in the knowledge of the history and peoples of the scriptures. We change our focus, open our hearts and look to the Holy Spirit to guide us as we approach the Bible. Just as a scrapbook page has many layers, so the Word of God is layered with meaning that we receive in different ways depending on where we are in our own spiritual growth.

2 Timothy 3:16 tells us "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right." So, where ever we are on the continuum of learning the Word of God, it is just important that we keep on studying, learning the lessons there and correcting our lives accordingly. Then, as we progress, deeper and stronger truths seem to jump out at us. Story gives way to understanding and faith is fed as we study the Holy Bible. Where are you in your Bible reading?