As you might imagine I received a lot of books for Christmas. As I get older and accumulate more and more books I realize that one day I will lay a book down for the last time and will leave someone else all of these wonderful treasures. It is highly unlikely that they will feel the same way that I do about them. They will not remember the trips that each book represents, the travels to old, musty, used bookstores where I found these treasures. The squeals of delight (manly squeals, not little girl squeals) when I came across something that I had been looking for and found it at a much lower price than I could have imagined. These books will likely be a burden to someone someday.
This tempts me to start giving them away. I was a teaching assistant to Dr. Murry Harris who gave most of his library to a seminary in a third world country when he stopped teaching. He didn’t want to keep them and burden his family and the movers with dragging the things half way around the world. The problem is that I don’t know if I can give them away or not. I’m a little too attached to them. Giving them away is like giving away the memory of that trip to Grand Rapids when my friend Doug and I got up early, before daylight, wanting to get to the best places before they opened. It was like a hunting trip for other guys. On the way home we were flush with the success of our finds and with the tales about how we had found a great deal on a Robertson’s grammar or a copy of Bultmann’s work on the Synoptics. The hunt was as great as the find and if I gave up the book I would be giving up the memories. I can’t bring myself to do that.
The thing is that the new year reminds us that they don’t last forever. There will come a day when there will be no more books to be read and no more trips to be taken. In that day we must ask ourselves what we have done for the kingdom of Heaven. Reading books is a great thing. I love it. But what will last? The book will last a long time. Probably longer than you if it is cared for properly. But your actions, how long will they last? Make them last forever.
Happy New Year
SamLam