Volume Two, Issue 24

June 20, 2022

We desire to see everyone living in healthy relationship with the Lord.

The Bible Map

from Cossondra

My grandmother was born near the beginning of the 20th century. She grew up on a farm with a houseful of siblings and married when she was 18. During her adult life, she raised five children, worked as a textile worker, and even sold Avon. I watched more than helped as, in her sixties and later, she picked vegetables from the garden, shelled, canned, and cooked. She also served at her church, teaching Sunday School, providing meals for workdays, and working herself. And there was so much more. So much.

She is gone now, as are all of her children. They told stories about her, and we grandchildren absorbed them. The stories were funny, happy, and mostly sweet. Some are about her making wedding dresses, digging potatoes, and chasing down one of my cousins who had sassed her one too many times.

Several of our stories put Grandmama on a pedestal, elevating her nearly to saint status. One of the stories was that when she visited her out-of-state children, she would travel without a map or directions, just her Bible on the front seat of the car. This would have been during the 1960s through the early 1980s, long before GPS. Then, it took much longer for the average person to fold up a map than it now does for our phones to calculate our estimated arrival time. But, grandchildren always heard how Grandmama navigated by the Holy Spirit because she was such a godly woman. And she was godly. We knew her character and her strength. She not only taught us how to live according to God's word, but she also demonstrated it. We thought Grandmama could do anything, so it was no wonder to us that angels whispered directions in her ears or God highlighted roads with golden light and singing choirs. I was fortunate enough to go on several of these trips with her. I remember the worn Bible lying in between us on the car seat. So as I heard the stories, I nodded knowingly.

A few years back, I found that old Bible. The cover had come loose from the spine, and several pages threatened to fall out. Obviously, it had been well used and well-loved through the years. In the introductory pages, Grandmama had, in her shaky pressed handwriting, listed the births of her children. My mother had added their death dates, and I added hers. A flower was pressed between the pages, as were sermon notes, school pictures of grandchildren, and an empty green Double Mint gum wrapper.

I examined the body of the Bible and ran my fingers over dates and preachers' names she had inked in the margins, marking scriptures they taught. I imagined Grandmama sitting on the wooden pew she frequented (third from the front) focused on the words coming from the pulpit. And, I found something else: several small slips of paper, some just empty envelopes, covered with directions to her children's homes in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Colorado.

Grandmama's children had venerated her as a saint, assuming that all sorts of wisdom and power came with that. Of course, she had lots of wisdom, and the power of the Holy Spirit flowed through her. But she was smart enough to know that she couldn't take results for granted.

If the gardens got dry, she prayed for rain while she carried buckets of water to the thirsty plants. If someone needed her to sew a dress, she sang gospel songs and used a pattern. If she was driving cross-state or cross-country to a place she had never been before, she listened to the Holy Spirit and got directions.

There is certainly a time for waiting on the Lord. The Bible gives that command many times. But only once does God say to be still and wait. I believe that in many circumstances, we need to be actively waiting. Not trying to take things into our own hands, but like a waiter or a waitress, perhaps? Serving the Lord, serving others. Praying, worshipping, seeking God's insight.

Often we want GPS directions to our next destination, including turn-by-turn guidance and an ETA. Those types of directions are rare, however. Sometimes they come on a big map that folds thirty-two times and may never go back to normal after we find our way. Sometimes they come in bits and pieces, like small slips of paper covered with smeared ink and abbreviations for highways we haven't traveled before. These are just as important.

Anything we get from the Lord is important. Let's be careful not to take the smallest prompting from Him for granted. You may not need them now, but you can stick them in your Bible for later, maybe even for the generations to come.