Old Friend / New Friend

There is a saying I always tell our church:

If your Bible is falling apart, then probably your life is not!

I guess that only applies to those people whose Bible is falling apart because they read it - not because they mistreat it, but I have really found this to be true, not only in my own life, but in the lives of others whom I have observed using Bibles with pages worn out from much use.

Not long ago I said goodbye to an old friend - and welcomed a new friend into my life.
In November 2002 I bought a Bible at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver for $14.95. I read and taught from that Bible for years. Two times I used superglue to reattach the binding; its pages have coffee stains, and were ripped and even eaten by both of my kids.



These are battle scars, and every good Bible should have some battle scars - they are signs of life, that that Bible is actually used and read. Bibles were not meant to sit nicely on shelves as pristine decorations.

When we were in the States, Rosemary bought me a new Bible to replace my old friend. This one is a big larger and has a real leather binding, which probably won't fall off as easily as the fake leather one I had before.



This one already has its first battle scar - an ink stain on the cover that I got while taking notes at a conference in Ukraine.
I plan to have this one for a while, and hopefully get a lot of mileage out of it.

Is your Bible falling apart? What battle scars does yours have?