Every vacation we have ever taken has included a visit to the gift shop. Last summer we visited a gift shop in Galveston and came out the proud owners of two hermit crabs.  Jason's parents laughed recently remembering a trip where they took Hayden and Hallie to Yellowstone several years back. They were steps away from a moose, ate like kings and queens and saw Old Faithful but  Hallie announced that her favorite part of the trip was the gift shop.Gift Shop in Galveston

 We're about to make our yearly trek to a resort in Colorado.  This will be somewhere around my twenty-eighth time to go to Fun Valley. I have visited the gift shop there at least twice as many times.

There's just something about being in that gift shop that I adore. For as long as I can remember there have been wind chimes gracing the rafters in front; a welcoming tune. Rows of new t-shirts are stacked neatly on shelves. And there's a candy section with chocolate covered raisins and saltwater taffy. I'm no shopper, but at the gift shop there's usually something just for me and a little something for the ones I love.  I could go there a thousand times, and still there would be things I somehow missed. And even when I leave seemingly empty-handed I know that there was joy having simply been there.

I take my children there.  I go there with my mother and sisters.  My nieces and nephews go with me too. They go with rolled up dollar bills and coins jingling ready to give what they have to leave with more than they came.

Though absolutely nothing compares to the Bible, the Bible -like my favorite gift shop- is a place worth visiting time and time again. It's words always welcome me. It's words are always new through the Spirit.   I can go to its pages and find words just for me.  For the loved ones on my mind, the bible has words of comfort, peace and direction. Through meditating on its lines, I bear the gift of love its words have placed in me.  There have also been occasions where I have been reading and the clarity of  scripture brings to mind someone who needs prayer or encouragement.  Even when I spend time in God's word and I go on seemingly empty-handed, that is not the case.  I may not receive revelation every time I visit its pages, but I know that time spent is sacred. I may not leave with a bag of treasures, but a bit more of the Spirit in me.

It is a precious gift, both to those who read it and to those we encounter as we live out its words. But I don't know its value.  Shamefully I have treated God's word like one of the many coffee cups bought at the gift shop; something to be used on occasion. It has been treated like a refrigerator magnet a proud symbol but nothing more.  Like a Fun Valley t-shirt I often try to make it fit me. I've hardly ever invited my children, much less my sisters, nieces and nephews into its pages with me. Thankfully one of the greatest gifts I find in my Bible is the gift of grace.  And even as I approach the words with small expectation, I believe the Spirit has greater things in mind.

My thought?- The more I visit the more I'll know.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. -John 15:7-8