I have looked in wonder and at length at the lovely inscription, "Marie A. Baker, Christmas, 1924."
The inscription is in the front of a Bible that I just bought from an antique store in Berlin, Ohio, on our recent trip to visit Amish country. It is written in a flowing script that seems to show no signs of hurry or worry.
I have several very old Bibles in my collection, some of them from the 1700s and 1800s, and I even have a framed page of an original 1611 King James Bible. The 90-year-old Bible with the lovely inscription in the front is not too terribly old as Bibles go, but something about it caught my attention.
As I mused on a Bible that has changed hands again in the year 2014, I cannot help but wonder how many times through the years it has done so, how many places it has been, and how many circumstances it has carried people through by the words on its pages. I do not know how long Marie A. Baker kept that Bible, but please indulge me while I imagine what that precious book may have done, and for whom, before it came to me.
That book, five years after it was given, was there for its owner as the country was rocked by the Wall Street crash of '29 and the Great Depression that followed. The owner was able to sit at a table in a dimly lit room with cupboards growing barer by the day and read Psalm 55:22, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
That book, as the world was engulfed in a second World War, and as millions across the world were bleeding and dying, was able to be picked up by trembling hands of fear, opened to John 14:1-3, and show the words the owner most needed to see, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
In the upheaval of the '60s, when the country seemed to be tearing itself apart from within, an owner not sure of where to turn was able to open that book to Acts 10:34-35 and read: "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."
In the '70s, filled with angst over Vietnam and all the scandals that followed, a person loyal both to Christ and to country, torn and unsure even of how to pray, was able to open that now 50-year-old book and read 1 Timothy 2:1: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."
In the relatively peaceful yet self-absorbed '80s and '90s, a person wondering if there is any meaning in life could have opened that book to Revelation 4:11 and read "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
As the 20th century ended and the first 15 years of the 21st century unfolded, a person stunned by the avalanche of open sinfulness in society could go back to that book and find an anchor for belief and behavior in 1 Peter 1:16: "Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."
When I get to heaven, I hope Marie A. Baker is there, I would like to ask her about her old Bible.
Dr. Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, NC, a widely-traveled evangelist, and the author of several books. His books are available at www.wordofhismouth.com.