Judging a book by its cover

I think we are all guilty of doing what we ought not do. Librarians and teachers probably enjoy this line, "don't judge a book by its cover". I am especially guilty of this, I always look for a pretty cover with good art on it or an old one with fraying edges and a simple design impressed into its hard cover. At a book sale recently I was going through the childrens books. There was a certain book there with a lot of copies, I ended up picking the hard bound one with the dust jacket still intact and a cute picture of a raccoon on it, Godseeker :) I've been meaning to write this blog for almost 2 weeks now, I'm glad I waited because God has added a few things to this.

So a couple of weeks ago, at the library the kids were doing an art project for the summer reading program. Once they got started I headed upstairs to walk through the "Mom books." The books are divided out into sections, fiction, biographies, Sci Fi, non-fiction, and classic literature. As I was wondering through the sections and checking out the covers, I noticed that each section has its unique personality because of the types of covers that are chosen to represent the books. For example, the biographies seem boastful because all the pictures of the important people whose lives were incased inside these volumes. The fiction had a daydreamy feel, and so on.

I had trouble finding the classic lit section because of recent book shifting and the fact that this library is older and architecturally rich, which unfortunately leads to darker corners. When I finally found it. This overwhelming feeling of wisdom and experience oozed from the old fraying covers. Like a long chat with a good friend, or after a night of Selah study. This is where I first noticed each section having its personality. Elizabeth George says about reading books in her book Life Management for Busy Women "The greatest writers and theologians and teachers in the world are sharing the fruits of their decades of study. They are distilling their knowledge down ... to people like you and me." She goes on to encourage us all to seek out the wisdom in the books out there.

The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being. Proverbs 20:27 I imagine God as an older sage like man sitting in a comfy armchair, with a lamp shinign over his shoulder. He has an open book on his lap. The pages are tattered from much use and bookmarked and postit noted, very much like I see the bibles that people have been carrying for a long time. When I step closer in I see my name, A., as the title of this volume, and I see on his shelves, many other volumes, with Godseeker, Jomama, and heiress among others on their covers. You see as we are seeking Him out through His Book, He is seeking us out too.

Our church had a float in a parade recently. We decided to hand out pocket size Gospels of Mark. These small books had the neatest covers on them. I wasn't sure how they would be received, but people were taking them happily, and we even had some people ask for them! I pray that as these people are reading the Word of God, God will be seeking out them, and creating additional opportunities for people surrounding them to be a witness.

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Update on the mystery squash. Its setting fruit on, and it is appearing to be a pie pumpkin! I hope everyone likes pumpkin pie, because there is going to be a lot of it this fall from the looks of things :) My tomatoes are still green, but there are a lot of those too. I'm going to have to buy more jars soon for my canning.