A BIBLE STORY

 

 One of the rites of passage in church life is the giving of Bibles for children or youth who have reached a milestone in their faith journey.

My appreciation goes out to those who were responsible for the selection of the Bibles for the Love United Methodist 2026 Confirmation Class. Geordan came home with a beautiful, black-bound Common English Version. Both Pastor Luis and Pastor Ellen had signed the presentation page, already making it something special.

Included were Bible Index Tabs – one for each section and for all 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament. These tabs were of the DIY variety but were prepared with adhesive for easy application.

Jennette offered to get it started. After removing OLD TESTAMENT from the package and peeling back the adhesive cover, she carefully aligned the tab on the edge of the appropriate page, then did the same with the GENESIS tab.

Almost perfect. But I decided that almost perfect could be modified just a bit. I discovered that the adhesive could be very carefully peeled back, and the tab aligned a bit better. Was it closer to perfect after my adjustment? No. Just imperfect in a different way. 

But I forged ahead, adding several tabs before moving the whole project to the patio so I could enjoy the sunshine and breeze. A glance revealed that I had put them all on the same page. Not a very useful alignment.

So, I carefully pulled the adhesive from the poorly placed tabs, flipped to the appropriate pages, and reaffixed. 

The next series was easier as I began to find my rhythm.  But I found that I had sometimes placed the tabs on groups spanning more than one page.

So, I carefully pulled the adhesive from the poorly placed tabs, flipped to the appropriate pages, and reaffixed.

The lovely breeze had begun to blow the pages, and several stuck to the tabs before I was ready.

 So, I carefully pulled the adhesive from the poorly placed tabs, flipped to the appropriate pages, and reaffixed.

I moved back inside the house.

Another moment of checking my work revealed that, in some cases, the tab was on the introductory page of that Biblical book, and in others, it was on the first page of the actual scripture.

So, I carefully pulled the adhesive from the poorly placed tabs, flipped to the appropriate pages, and reaffixed.

I determined that Geordan wasn’t the kind of Biblical scholar who would notice that detail as he looked for HOSEA or LAMENTATIONS.

The OLD TESTAMENT had been quite a challenge, but I had perfected my system by the time I reached the NEW TESTAMENT. Until John I, II, and III, when the printed text stuck to the adhesive part, and the gold ink transferred. As I finished REVELATION, I declared it “good enough,” which seemed appropriate and spiritually accurate.

Geordan yelled a “thanks, Nana” over his shoulder and went back to video games.

As I cleaned up my work area, I saw a black tab labeled EXODUS on the kitchen floor. I felt like I had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.