More than words...

Wednesday, the kids and I took our first Home school Field Trip. A museum exhibit on the History of the Bible is currently visiting our church and we took the morning to visit. Wow. My camera was allowed, but my flash was not. I still snapped away. I wanted to capture as much as possible because I knew my trio -- and their mommy -- would want to see things a second time after we had absorbed as much as possible!

The exhibit had actual fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as many of the early translations of the Bible. Did you know that the monks who did the early scribing of the Bible had to start over if they committed even one error? Even if the error occurred at the very last word of the page? The kids and I recognized the blessing of technology -- of computers that allow us to make any number of mistakes and correct them with a brush of keystrokes.

Below is an actual fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The exhibit had several -- this particular one contains Deuteronomy 8:3:

"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

Isn't that amazing?!

Below is one of the first Bibles translated into English. Did you know that William Tyndale broke the laws of England to translate the Bible into his native tongue? And as a result, he was convicted of heresy, killed for his actions and his body burned in 1536. He is considered the Father of the Modern English Bible.

The exhibit was moving and so very informative...the kids and I learned so much about the journey the Word of God has taken in order for us to study and read it at our leisure. But did you know that there are still 2,251 languages with no Bible translations? That is 193 MILLION people that do not have a Bible for the language they speak. 193 Million. Unbelievable.

And then there were the quotes at the end of the exhibit from America's founding fathers -- quotes like the one above by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams. There were quotes from George Washington and James Madison and even Noah Webster. All quotes about the importance of the Bible in governing this great country of ours, in raising and educating our children, and in living life in general.

Oh Father God, thank you for those who worked tirelessly, risking life and limb to give us YOUR word and the freedom to study it for ourselves. May you help us individually and as a country to come back to a place where your word is the measuring stick for all our decisions.

Amen.