The Bible on the top of your car?
DON'T PUT YOUR BIBLEON THE TOP OF YOUR CAR!
A few years ago, my now departed deaf friend, Felix, called me to say he had lost his Bible!
He had just recently bought a wonderful Bible and Bible case at my book store, and now he was almost in tears over losing it. I sympathized with him and encouraged him to search around . . . perhaps it had been merely misplaced somewhere in the house.
A few weeks past, then I received a phone call from a party who lived in a trailer park, not far from Felix's home. He said he had found a Bible in a case, lying in a gutter and it had our store's name and phone number inside -- but there was no other information about whose Bible it was.
I went over to the person's trailer to examine the Bible, and -- sure enough -- it was Felix' Bible. He had evidently placed the Bible on top of his car as he was preparing to leave for church and for some reason had forgotten to fetch it before driving away.
Remarkably, the Bible and case were in good condition. Evidently it had been found by the person who called before any damage could occur.
It was on December 24, and I drove over to Felix' home to return the Bible. When he opened the door, I said, "Santa Claus has arrived a little early!" and presented him with the Bible. He was as happy as a kid with a load of toys from Santa's sleigh!
I recently started to leave for an evening Bible study and reached for my Bible at the place I usually keep it. It was not there. I looked all around for it, but no Bible. Why? Where was it?
I immediately thought about Felix and his lost Bible, and I also thought about another time last year when I pulled out of my driveway and saw pieces of paper flying by. I had inadvertently left my Bible, usually stuffed with various printed items, on top of the car and the papers were flying all over the place. I stopped, retrieved the Bible, and then spent several minutes recovering as many of the scattered papers as I could see. Don't know yet if I got them all.
I now wondered if I had done that again! I resorted to my usual practice when I lose something: I asked the Lord to please help me find my Bible! It not only had a lot of small papers stuffed inside the front and back, but had years of notes, etc. on the pages, plus a lot of information about births, marriages, deaths, events, etc. written in the front and back pages. How would I assemble all of this information again!
After I returned from the Bible study, I did another search around the place, praying, "Lord, please help me find my Bible!"
I looked all around my office, all around every aisle and shelf in the store, and even looked around in the warehouse side of our building. No Bible.
Finally, I went over to the front door where there is a tall "spinner" rack which displays larger products such as calendars. There it was -- safely lying in the top hanger of the spinner where I had left it! It had been placed there temporarily when I was doing something else around the front entrance, and I had failed to pick it up when I finished. The Lord had come through again!
Sure, I know that sooner or later, I would have probably come across the Bible, or some customer might call it to my attention -- but it surely did save me from a lot of anxiety to locate the Bible on the same evening I had discovered that it was missing. I was so relieved to know that I had not pulled a "Felix" and lost the Bible off the top of my car!
And I was grateful to the Lord for helping me find it!
posted by Bob L. Ross @ 11:36 AM
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