The Bible is Better than a Teddy Bear
My son, be attentive to my words;
Proverbs 4:2-22 NLT
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
I groped my way through the dark basement until I bumped into the couch, tossed my blanket toward what I assumed was the headrest, slowly sat down, and leaded back. All the way back. A day of family drama compounded by another round of Covid meant a long night of tears and dry cough lie ahead.
As I flipped the blanket over my toes, a teddy bear launched into the air and fell in my lap, just as my husband’s violent cough from the next room reminded me of just how cold the basement can get at night alone.
“Better than nothin,” I reasoned and tucked the fluffy stow-away under my arm before pulling the blanket up to my ears. A moment later, my lungs seized, and I joined my husband for a matrimonial chorus of coughing, courtesy of the trip-a-demic of 2022. I squeezed my plush prisoner as droplets of self-pity fell from my chin and matted his flannel ears.
Then, through the tears and Covid brain, I heard my friend’s words from that morning: “Stay close to Jesus today. You know His Word regulates us.”
I knew what I had to do.
I released poor Teddy, reached to the coffee table beside me, and padded around until I felt the worn faux leather of my Bible. I wrapped both arms securely around the soft book, one hand on the spine, the other hand resting on the pages. I laid there for a few moments with the Bible against my chest, amazed at how light and un-cumbered God’s Word felt as it rose and fell with each slow, raspy breath, until I realized my cheeks were dry. Unashamed, and too tired to care if my husband found me sleeping with my Bible, I whispered, “Good night, Jesus. I love you” and went to sleep.
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