Pondering on Bookcases and Blessings

“The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.”

C. S. Lewis

“What would my bookcase tell someone else about me and my life?” 

I’ve heard it said before that looking at someone’s bookcase and personal library can tell you a lot about that person. I find that one’s personal book collection, along with all the little things and knickknacks that end up on the bookcases, reveal much about a person’s interests, background, experiences, and even their character. I find it interesting to peruse the bookcases in background of other people when on Zoom meetings, news stories, and other online platforms. But, perhaps that’s just because I enjoy looking at bookcases!

When I look at my own bookcases, recently built by my own two hands and newly purchased power drill, I see evidence of blessings. As I read the spines of my books, and look at the bookmarks scattered around the shelves, and the odd mug or two placed at random on the shelves…I see blessings. 

If we look around our homes, whether it be our bookcases or our dining room tables or our kitchen countertops, do we see the evidence of blessings? 

When I look at my bookcases in particular, perhaps because I like to collect things, I see so many blessings. 

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I see my original Harry Potter books (say what you will) next to a set of owl bookends that were a gift when I moved into my own apartment. My original copy of the first book in the series still has the note inscribed by my aunt, who sent me the book as a gift: “Catherine, enjoy the hottest book of 1999!”  

I see evidence of a blessed childhood where I was encouraged to read widely and to use my imagination as much as possible. 

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I see my college and seminary textbooks, including everything from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology to my old Greek New Testament. I see books on theology, church history, women in ministry, Adventist studies, biblical theology. I see a collection of bible commentaries that I used to write papers, study, and look for answers to my questions. I see a section of books on women’s studies and sexuality, a topic that I became interested in later in my seminary life. I see an absurd number of bibles and surveys of the Old and New Testaments. I see books on worship, biblical counseling, and teaching. I see books on other world religions, and sacred texts from some of those world religions. I see books on how to read the bible, how to study it, how to interpret what it says, and how others have interpreted what it says throughout history. 

I see evidence of a wonderfully well-rounded education, where I had the opportunity to study the bible with other like-minded students and learn from world-renowned professors lecturing from the front of the classroom.

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I see a large collection of classic works, from authors like Jane Austen, Flannery O’Connor, Homer, Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so many others. I see classic works that I read in high school as required reading, and others that I picked up from thrift stores because they were by the same authors that I remembered liking. I see my battered copy of Jane Eyre, the first classic that I read outside of school required reading. I see an old copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that belonged to my aunt. I see a copy of Little Women that was a gift from my best friend in high school. 

I see evidence of an interest in reading that grew and flourished over time, where I could read a book as a high schooler and find things that applied to me then, and I can read that same book now as an adult and find new things that apply to me now. 

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I see a mug in the shape of a cauldron, from Salem, Massachusetts that I picked up when my family came to see me graduate seminary in Boston. I see a post card from Florence, Italy that my aunt brought back for me from her travels, tucked into the front cover of the Italian translation of the bible that she also brought back for me. I see a wayward Greek vocabulary card, that apparently once had been used as a bookmark. 

I see evidence of memories. I see evidence of hard work. I see evidence of so many blessings in my life. 

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When you look at your kitchen countertops, do you see the blessings? When you walk by your coffee table in the living room, do you see the blessings? When you look outside in the garden, do you see the blessings? When you look around your home, where we have all spent so much time this year, do you see the blessings? When you look around your workplace, do you see the blessings? When you look around you as you take a walk outside, do you see the blessings?

As I sit here on the first days of the new year (in quarantine because I work for a college and there are rules we must follow) and I look at my newly built bookcases, I see evidence of blessings. 

Count your many blessings, name them one by one. 

Do you see the evidence of your blessings?