Thursday, December 31st, 2009...12:59 pm
Star in an Apple
If I could get mangoes for less than a dollar each, I would buy them more often. Alas, rare is the mango on our taste buds. Instead, our staple fruit is the apple. Almost daily I slice a few Fuji or Jonagold or Granny Smiths for the lunch table.
Years ago my father-in-law bought me Swiss paring knives from Europe. I would almost call those knives friends. (I love my knives.) I always slice them in the same pattern, the same ritual (down the middle, then a little “v” to remove the stem parts, then each half into halves again, then a shallow, wide “v” to remove the core parts). In our home, apples are day-to-day.
We don’t give apples much thought. We eat them all the time. Even the preparation is the same each time, and the slices are repeatedly uniform. The same…
. . . like the Christmas story—the same Baby and manger and shepherds every year—and like the Bible, always the same.
It is a danger to approach the Word like I have done, especially with the more familiar passages. Too often I come thinking, I’ve read this before; I know this part already.
Though the Word is the same, it is living, and so am I. No matter what my life’s circumstances at the moment, and no matter where I am reading in the Bible, it can always speak something new to me.
God’s Word remains the same but is never stagnant.
How can I remind myself of this? How can I guard against a ho-hum attitude to Bible passages I’ve read over and over?
I slice the apple the other way . . .
. . . and though it is the same as the other apples, I get a different view. I see the star in the apple.
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For some “apple slicing” ideas, see this post from June 2009..
...to Know-Love-Obey God
9 Comments
December 31st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Continually amazed (though I should not be) that I can read a passage for the umpteenth time and hear Him speak something new.
I find myself lately reading a text backwards to “slice it the other way” (I love that analogy). I start…somewhere…and then read the verse above, instead of below. And the one above that…and above that…and above that… Rather like reading the Chronicles of Narnia out of chronological order: I pick up on the details in sometimes a more meaningful way. Great encouragement from you here on the slicing.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Continually amazed (though I should not be) that I can read a passage for the umpteenth time and hear Him speak something new.
I find myself lately reading a text backwards to “slice it the other way” (I love that analogy). I start…somewhere…and then read the verse above, instead of below. And the one above that…and above that…and above that… Rather like reading the Chronicles of Narnia out of chronological order: I pick up on the details in sometimes a more meaningful way. Great encouragement from you hear on the slicing.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Lovely!
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Monica this is a breathe of fresh air for the new year.
Thank you for the perspective.
I look forward to sharing the next year with you.
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
sorry for the typo…
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:46 pm
And I always find something new here.
For that , I thank you. I have so many ways to see and learn yet.
I hope we continue to find some stars together.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Thank you for stopping by my blog.
It’s always nice to meet someone new, especially when I haven’t attended to my writing space in such a long time.
I appreciated everything you offered regarding Wisdom of Wilderness, and I agree that we probably came out of the book with similar impressions. (Yay, another compatriot!)
You make a great analogy about slicing familiar things a different way. We eat apples as a daily staple around here too. And I even cut them the same way you do.
My kids will be surprised tomorrow to find “apple stars” on their lunch plates.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Creative way to illustrate you point! I like this.
January 29th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
[...] It is another way to slice the apple a different way. I’m on the lookout for conversations as I read the Bible. I think the dialogue and [...]
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