A Bible can provide a window into the life of the person to whom it belongs. Or belonged. After my dad, Ken Nelson, passed away last summer, his large-print Bible came into my hands. It has markings and notes scattered throughout—and lots of dates to indicate when he’d been reading a passage. The binding is falling apart, and yet in good, frugal “Dad fashion,” it’s held together by duct tape!
Dad wrote two dates by Psalm 46, both of them in 2012 just after my mom, Connie Nelson, had died: “God is our refuge and strength, a very-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.” Losing mom after sixty years of marriage left Dad’s heart exposed and emotionally raw. And yet he knew he was secure in God’s fortress-love.
Psalm 119 got a lot of markings—that longest of all Bible chapters, all about the truth and treasure of Scripture. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (119:105). “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end” (119:33).
In the Gospels Dad had a way of focusing in on Jesus’ call to action, like in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Or 19:19, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Or 20:26, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”
Dad highlighted Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” He often quoted Acts 16:31 and had underlined it as well, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 was also emphasized, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” The basic gospel facts of salvation were so very important to Dad: being loved eternally by God was a gift he’d received by faith.
The practical instructions so common in the NT letters got my very practical dad’s attention, and Colossians 3:17 seems to sum them up: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
