My Most Precious Gift

I went to my safe deposit box in Charlottesville yesterday, to retrieve the things that had been stored there while I traveled. The contents were telling--vital documents (the main reason I went), some things of my father's, gifts for a girl who didn't love me, and this.

This was the first thing that was ever given to me--as you can see from the inscription, given on the day I was born. The Word of God. A prophetic gift indeed.

I never met Pastor Wesberry within my memory, nor have I ever visited Morningside Baptist Church (though I love the name). But as I sat here at the end of my devotions-and-coffee this morning and picked up this little New Testament, I realized that he set me on a path the day I was born, and that I wanted to thank him one day for that in Heaven. I used, as a very small child before I even learned to read, to sit and hold this lovingly, and gaze at the one picture inside--appropriately enough, the Adoration of the Magi. 

I wonder now how much of my taste and preference was formed before I was even fully aware. From the very Anglican title page to the Authorized Version and the pictures of the church I attended as an infant with my parents, I'd say that they were setting me well on the path to becoming an Anglican.

Baptistism is, after all, just stripped-down Anglicanism, as is also evident in the Hymnal--one of the reasons I love the Anglican liturgy so much: it combines the sublimely beautiful high-church classical music with the old-time hymns that are closest to my heart. 

What is certain, however, is that this gift somehow created for me, in my deepest heart, a love for the Word of God and therethrough for God Himself, that has defined my entire life, and will define my eternity. So, thank you, Pastor Wesberry.

"Even if I were the greatest sinner on earth, I should not have less trust in God, for my hope does not rest upon my innocence, but on God's mercy and omnipotence."

-- St. Therese of Lisieux

 In the natural order, in proportion as the child grows, the more self-sufficient he should become, for some day he will no longer have his parents. In the order of grace, on the contrary, the more the child of God grows, the more he understands that he will never be self-sufficient and that he depends intimately on God. As he matures, he should live more by the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who, by His seven gifts, supplies for the imperfections of his virtues to such an extent that his is finally more passive under the divine action than given up to his personal activity. In the end he will enter into the bosom of the Father where he will find his beatitude.

A young person, on reaching maturity, leaves his parents to begin life for himself. The middle-aged man occasionally pays a visit to his mother, but he no longer depends on her as he formerly did; instead, it is he who supports her. On the contrary, as the child of God grows up, he becomes so increasingly dependent on his Father that he no longer desires to do anything without Him, without His inspirations or His counsels. Then his whole life is bathed in prayer; he has obtained the best part, which will not be taken away from him. He understands that he must pray always.

-- Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

Bookshelves

So here's why not to buy cheap particle board bookshelves:

 

When I bought these, some years ago, I really didn't have any other option: real wood ones were quite expensive, and for the number of books that I own the cost would have been prohibitive. So when this happened the other day, I looked around but still, didn't want to spend what they're asking for them. But unlike back then, now I've got tools and space to work in. So....

It's not exactly fine furniture, but it looks alright and it holds my books.