Hanging out in a few airports last week, I noticed the one accessory nearly every traveler deemed necessary.  More of us carried this than carried bottles of water, computers, or even umbrellas.  It seems the well accessorized traveler will not embark without some reading material at hand.  Most of my fellow voyageurs had books with them, although a few were carrying gossip magazines, The Wall Street Journal, or The Washington Post.  Children were carrying their Lemony Snickets.  Young folks were toting Japanese graphic novels.  Adults had Spy novels, Romance novels, Self-Help books, Political tomes, Biographies, and Mysteries.  A few had Bibles. Fewer still had one of the classics.  I had a New Testament in one jacket pocket, Marcus Aurelius in another pocket, and was carrying Dashiell Hammett – I like to have options.

            Many have worried about the future of the book, fearing that laptops will elbow them over the edge of oblivion.  I don’t think so.  I think the technological advancement made in the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century, when the Codex (the book) rapidly replaced the scroll, will be hard improve upon.  Attractive, portable, affordable, and ergonomically perfect for human hands – the book is a technological marvel not unlike the wheel – fully suited to its task.

            Historians have often attributed the speed with which the book replaced the scroll to the demands of Christians.  We wanted Bibles.  We wanted to read them.  We wanted to carry them around.  We wanted to cross reference what Matthew wrote, with what John wrote, and with a passage from Isaiah.  We wanted to mark one passage, hold our thumb on another, while we read a third.  You can’t do this on a scroll (you can only do it awkwardly on a computer).  This, in turn, has shaped the way we learn almost any subject – we don’t learn long narrative songs, or tie knot patterns on a chord – we source, research, reference, and cross reference.  This has happened because God intended it to be so.  He gave us a book.

            And so the folks I flew with had books, not scrolls, not tablets, not even many laptops in their laps.

            But why were they reading at all?  Why weren’t they doing cross stitch?  Why weren’t they drawing pretty pictures, or playing tic-tac-toe.  Why weren’t we all having a sing-a-long instead of sitting in that narrow reading room in the friendly skies?  Well, some were clearly working.  But most of us were having fun.  Most of us were reading because it is pleasurable to read.  Michel de Montaigne once wrote: When young I read for ostentation; then later to enable myself to become wiser; now for delight only, and recreation – never for gain.  And the psalmist writes: Oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all day…How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth…I love your commandments above gold, yes fine gold. (Psalm 119.97,103,127).  There are an endless number of reasons to read God’s book.  One of the major reasons is that it is a pleasure to do so – it is fun.

            So pick up your Bible – it is built for ease of use.  Having picked it up, read it – you’ll have fun.