My Grandmother’s New Testament

My grandmother, Ma Latty, has been gone 55 years. Her New Testament is far older than that. And the words it contains are much, much older but they still endure. The  Old and New Testaments are like bedrock. People come and go but  bedrock endures. It is lasting. It never changes, and it is trustworthy enough to build a life upon. Which is what Ma and Pappy Latty did. And they taught their children to do the same.

Through the years she had stuck a few things inside her New Testament for safekeeping: a newspaper clipping or two, a pickle dish pattern for a quilt top, a small card with a Mother’s Day poem on it that may have contained earrings someone gave her as a gift. These things are inconsequential compared to their hiding place but they have endured, along with the Book.

Our lives are like the newspaper clippings or the small square of cardboard. If we hide ourselves in God’s Word, we too will endure. Forever. The entire Bible consists of both Old and New Testaments. One of my favorite chapters is Psalm 91. Verse 4: “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”  In olden days, a shield was large and was useful to hide behind when arrows fell thick and fast. A buckler was much smaller and was used in protection in hand to hand fighting. So God’s Word is protection against all enemies of the Christian, no matter from what direction the danger comes.

When I was a very young teenager, if I was invited on an outing and I didn’t want to go, sometimes I was too timid to say, “I don’t want to go” (which is what I should have done.) I would explain things to Mom and ask her to tell me I couldn’t go. Then I would go back to my friends and say, “My mother says I can’t.” And that was that. Now as an adult, I can explain my beliefs in the same way, “The Bible says …” And that’s all I need to say. I believe God’s Word is true and that’s the only explanation I need. It is a shield from the enemy’s arrows. It is a buckler for up close confrontations. No explanation needed. This is what God says and I choose to obey.

Ma’s New Testament is dear to me for more reasons than that it belonged to a grandmother I loved. The words in that Book get me through from day to day. I can count on them. They are as enduring as bedrock; they show me the way to eternal life; they are my shield and buckler. When  life seems like a battlefield, I can find safety in God’s Word. And I too can endure.