Camping goes way back for me, starting in my childhood days. When I was 9 or 10 my best friend of mine and I would camp out in a tent in my backyard in the Summer in New Orleans. Without my parents knowing it at about 1:00am we would venture out into the suburb streets catching ghosts of all things. Now we knew there was no such thing as a ghost but we sure were not going to tell the other person that. Then as I became a teenager I began real camping in tents along the banks of a Arkansas reservoir, where the art of using flashlights to get around at night was perfected. As time moved on my sons got involved in Scouts and naturally we went on many, many campouts where flashlights were your best friend when the sun went down. The flashlights enabled you to see where you could not see otherwise.
As camping trips became more common in my life, so did my reading of field guides, manuals, and camping techniques. Reading was essential to make life in the woods more tolerable. Reading the Bible is also necessary to get the most out of Sunday school, small groups, and Sunday sermons. A mother was trying to get her 8-year-old daughter to learn her Sunday school lesson. She took her Bible from the shelf and said, “Come Mary, I will help you learn your lesson and then you may go back and play again.” “All right Mother, but let’s study it out of Grandfather’s Bible. It is much more interesting than yours.” “Oh no, Mary! They are exactly the same.” “Well, I think Grandfather’s must be more interesting than yours; he reads it so much more.” Ouch!
I find it interesting that year after year the Bible ranks number one on all the top reading lists, but when you ask Christians what their favorite book(s) is/are they never say the Holy Bible. Why did Grandfather find his Bible so much more interesting than the Mother’s Bible? With age came the wisdom to know that to lead a successful life on earth requires a through knowledge of the Scriptures.
The Psalms repeatedly tell of the benefits of reading and living by The Book. Chapter 119 verse 105 puts it this way: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” In other words, the Word of God shows us the right paths to follow and where to step to avoid the holes in our path that will injure us if not avoided.
The flashlight lights our path at night, and the Book of books lights the paths of our daily lives to live successfully on earth. Be like Grandfather and spend lots of time reading your Holy Bible. Your life really does depend upon it!
