His eye is on the sparrow

You know, God is pretty amazing. He is in control of the large and the small, the "important" and the minutia.

I decided about two months ago that I wanted to purchase another Bible. I just bought a new one last Spring because it had wide margins to write in, but it's a newer version (Holman Christian Standard) and I don't want to memorize that version. My pastor preaches out of NASB, and I memorized NASB when I was in Christian school back in the day.

My "school" Bible is falling apart; chunks of the New Testament started coming loose when I was in college. At first it was kind of cool - I could take out the section with I Corinthians and hold it next to a section of Hebrews, easy cross-referencing - but now that I don't carry a backpack every day, it's likely I would lose sections carrying it back & forth. SO, I decided to buy myself NASB.

Since this purchase fell more in the category of WANT than NEED, I decided to shop for my "new" Bible on Ebay. I opted for a thinline, leather-bound Bible; the hardcover ones I have are quite heavy, and I know that I'll appreciate having a little less weight to haul around, ESPECIALLY once we get a baby. :-) Anyway, I purchased a secondhand Bible that had the previous owners name engraved on the front. No biggie for me. Bible + shipping was under $20, so I was happy.

Well, once the Bible arrived, I was surprised to discover that it was relatively new - the inscription to the previous owner was dated in May of 2008, right around graduation season. Nevertheless, I toted it around for a few weeks, contemplating how I could personalize it for me instead of "Chris B", whose name was already on it.

My mom gave me a great tip for removing the engraving, but before I did that, I decided to Google the original owner just to make sure he didn't want the Bible back. I figured he must have given it away or sold it for me to get it on ebay, but JUST IN CASE he lost it, I though it would be good to try to contact him.

I was surprised when he replied to the message I sent him on Facebook... he had lost the Bible over a year earlier and had given up on finding it. He said he had bought another Bible of a different version, but that the Bible *I* had was special to him because it was a gift from his Dad and his church. He was amazed that (a) the Bible had turned up and (b) that I actually contacted him and offered to send it back to him! I agreed to mail it to him (which took two tries... another long story...), and he sent me a cashiers check for $50 (he came up with the amount... not me). Later this month, I'll be going back to Ebay to shop for a new (un-engraved) Bible for myself.

Thank you, Lord, for showing me (and Chris!) how you care about the little things in our lives. Thank you for using me to bring joy to a stranger; may your word continue to enrich BOTH of our lives.