The Red Coat

I have a red jacket that is an "all-weather" coat of sorts.  When I bought it, I thought it would make a good rain coat as well.  I found out about a month ago that I was wrong.

Jags (Photo credit: alwright1)

As usual on Saturdays in the fall, we attended the University of South Alabama football game, on this particular day against Troy State University.  The forecast was for rain and no umbrellas are allowed in the stadium, so I wore my red coat. Since red is the predominant color of South's red-white-blue color theme, it fit in perfectly.

Then the rain started.  As the first the drops beaded up and rolled off my coat I felt snug and comfortable in my coat.  Then the material began to be saturated with water and the rain began to soak through my coat instead of run off it.  The rain continued throughout the whole game and as loyal fans, we stayed until the end.  Halfway through the game the rain had soaked all the the way through my coat, through my shirt to my skin.  To make matters worse, we lost 31-10.

I was thinking about that slow soaking the other day and I realized that is sometimes how it is when we read the Bible.  At first the truths and the realities of the Bible seem to just roll off us.  But the more we continue to read, perhaps day after day after day, eventually they sink into our hearts and minds and spirits until finally we become saturated with them.  The Scriptures then come to our minds readily because we have have put them into our mind so recurrently.  We have the promises of Scripture at hand in moments of pain, sorrow and trial because we have hidden them in our hearts before we needed them.

So let us remember to give our hearts that slow, steady soaking of the Scriptures, to daily "water" our hearts with the Word of God.  We can depend upon the fact we will receive blessings untold by doing so.

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

Psalm 119:11