Friday, October 07, 2005 11:16 pm

When I was younger, I read this children's book called The Princess and The Goblin by George MacDonald. It's a tale about a young princess called Irene, a young miner called Curdie, and a mysterious old but young Queen Irene (yes, another one). I remember...I loved that book and I thought it so enchanting, but that was it.

I can't remember how I later found out, but I discovered somehow that George MacDonald was a christian writer. So I went and I read the book again (and its sequel, The Princess and Curdie)...because ever since I found the parallels between christianity and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, I've always been on the lookout for another of that kinda thing. Stories make concepts so much clearer. I wasn't disappointed! Both books were chock full of metaphors that I never noticed as a child. It's funny...I seem to learn so much more when it isn't told straight to me.

I guess that's why Jesus used parables, huh.

The bible is another of that kinda thing. It doesn't always talk straight to you. I mean...words are words. There was that celeb (can't remember who) who read the entire bible front to back but in the end only said something about how it was merely a great book. That's what happens when we're not actually searching for the truth. But then it's complicated. Because sometimes you can be looking and you don't always find what you're looking for. What we expect isn't always what God has planned for us.

But back to the bible! I was just thinking how God speaks to me the most through His Word. And it's always the verses or passages that didn't mean much to me when I'd read them before. But then when He speaks it's like He just breathes life into it or something! It's like revelation. And I learn it as living truth when I actually apply it to my life. Learning something when it's told to you and learning something when you've lived it is not the same thing.

It kinda struck me yesterday - that's why they call it the Living Word! It actually is alive!! I glanced at my bible and saw so many tiny words just on the open pages...all that stuff is alive! Then I noticed how thick the book was. That whole thing is stuffed full of truth waiting to be awakened!! It felt like power in my hands |-)