Tattered and Torn

Have your ever had something of great value wear out? Maybe it was torn, stained, or falling to pieces. Whatever the item might have been, if it was worn out, you usually threw it away.

When my mother passed away many years ago, I found her Bible. The pages had become loose from the binding and a piece of leather was torn off one corner. Some of the pages were curled up on the edges. But inside she had pretty bookmarkers and little notes.

Many years prior, I had led my mother to the Lord. When she got her Bible, she used it. The more she used it, the more it began to show wear. However, the knowledge of what was written in those pages was forever engraved upon her heart.

As I looked through her Bible, I could not throw it away, nor could I give it away in its condition. So I carefully wrapped it in some silk material of hers and took it home to make it a part of my treasured books in my library. I thought of how special this particular Bible was to me. It was part of the life I had with my mother. I shared Christ with her so she would come to know Him in the quietness of her days and evenings, and she loved the Lord. I could picture her sitting and reading her Bible, so tattered and torn, perhaps reading the Scripture where the bookmarks fell among the pages. I would sit and read those verses:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:11).

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105).

My mother was a “living epistle” of God’s grace in her life. Although her body wore out, her heart was brand new, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. She had made herself ready as a part of the bride of Christ.

“And to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).

Copyright © Cathy Irvin, used with permission.