Proclaimer Blog
The depths of the riches
I managed to get a few days away this last week (school half term here in the UK) and this meant catching up on some reading. Notably, it was time for my once-a-year outing for Great Expectations. I don't really care what you think about Dickens, nor this book. I love it. And (this is where you will really think me potty), I read it about once a year. Even after all these readings (25 odd, I guess), it still never fails to make me laugh and cry in equal measure. Tommy Traddles is still funny (and wickedly left out of the BBC adaptation). Mr Micawber is a comedy treat. Dora's death is moving. Agnes' integration into the family tear inducing.
But here's the thing. Dickens is dense prose and I am a light reader. That means there is always something more to see. Always something I haven't seen before. A sentence or a pun. A conversation. A depth to a character or situation I overlooked. I guess that's one of the reasons I come back to it again and again.
I see the same, multiplied a zillion times, in the Scripture. I find it constantly amazing to see and understand details that I've never seen before, despite countless readings. Details that open up vast vistas and trains of thought that magnify the ultimate author and draw me closer to the Son. Just last week I saw in Genesis 1 something I'd never really seen before. How likely is that! It got me thinking and meditating and reflecting and drove me back into the text and back to the God who inspired it.
God's word is immensely deep and rich, and it's a great privilege to be paid to sound its depths and convey its truth to others.