Thursday, December 29, 2011

Salmon

On December 24 my aunt and my mom both finished.  Each one held a tattered-edged, read-the-Bible-through Bible.  They read day 365 and closed the book with a smile.  I felt a longing and a determination rise up in me.

Earlier in the month mom had asked if I wanted anything special for Christmas, and I asked for a read-the-Bible through Bible.  There had been a few times in the year when I had seen these ladies slip away from the crowd and open theirs.  I want that.  I opened the 365-day Bible Christmas morning and held it in my hand.  Again I feel the longing and determination.  How could I be a different person next Christmas if I were to completely read through this book?

I cheated and started early, assuming that somewhere along the line this year I would have a bad day and not get the book cracked open.  Now only 364 days to go. 

I read Matthew 1:5.  The middle of a list –all the moms and grandmas and great grandmas and great-greats in the line of Jesus.  “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.”

Boaz was a good man.  Attentive, compassionate, merciful.  A redeemer.  All we see is his tender care of a woman.

And only one word describes how he knew to treat a woman that way. 

Salmon.

What if my only fame some day is my name in a list.  And what if my entire life is only described by the influence I have had on the life of someone else?

And I know it’s this 364 days-left-to-read that will shape how my name reads on the page some day.

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