Around the age of 15, I started getting up at 4:30 in the morning to read this bible. It’s a Greek and Hebrew study bible, and I read it for an hour or two every day for two years. Its pages are stained with the grease of my hands and marked up with questions and notes—except for some of the more boring books, like Numbers and Leviticus. I have duct tape all over it because the binding is ready to go.
My relationship to this bible is held in conflict. It represents a part of my life that I want to remember and helps me remember what I don’t want to become. What started out as a time of having a lot of questions became a time of having a lot of answers. If you have a sacred book and it claims to contain the words of God, it’s easy to feel like you become the voice of God, and I think I treaded dangerously close to that.
It’s on my shelf where I see it all the time, but I don’t think I could ever use it again. I guess it’s become symbolic for me, symbolic of the way time changes opinions, and that I can change for the good and for the better.
~ Caleb Wilde, funeral director, Parkesburg, PA