Me: Before you take off, I have a question.

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

Prodigal: Great question!

This is from Nellia B. Garber

The Bible was a gift from Bob, my husband, but it seemed to belong as much to our son, Doug, as it did to me. Doug and I read it together. We shared it in Bible study groups. Together we underlined God’s promises. So when I received a new Bible, this familiar one became Doug’s own.

Doug married, and eventually he and his family moved into a house not far from ours. Driving an eighteen-wheeler, he spent long hours away from home. He kept a little leather pocket Bible with him in the rig, but he made sure that “our” Bible stayed safely at home.

Then one bitter winter afternoon, there was a fire. He and Marla and the three boys were in despair. “The whole house burned down,” Doug told us. “We lost everything.”

For a week, neighbors, family, and friends tried to help them. They supplied clothes, money, food, furniture, and many prayers. Then one day Marla came over, smiling.

“Mom,” she said, “look what I found in the rubble.” Into my hands she laid and old Bible, soaking wet, its leather cover shriveled and brittle, but with all the pages intact. Doug’s Bible-our Bible.

Immediately I began to dry it, first with a towel, then in the oven at 150 degrees. Slowly it became supple enough for me to turn its pages. When Doug came home, I said excitedly, “Open it up. Just let it fall open.”

The Good Book opened and Doug read a passage we had underlined: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee….when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee (Isaiah 43:2).

God’s promises. God’s precious promises.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org