About four years after Samantha’s accident, I was asked to share my story in front of a group of ladies gathered for lunch. With a normal amount of trepidation, I accepted the invitation and immediately went to work.

For weeks my mornings were spent filtering through topics and praying about what God wanted me to share. There was so much wisdom gained to sort through, truths that were revealed to me that I could retell and healing that had happened to give others hope that hours of silence were necessary for me to discern what I was suppose to do.

Eventually, the swirl of possible subject matters to cover changed into confirmation of the wisdom I was to impart. So, I went about recording my experience with written words. Erasing, replacing and adding explanations defined my actions as I polished and punctuated  what I planned to say.

Paragraph after paragraph I wrote, weaving my experience together with the teachings of the scripture. The more I recorded on paper, the more I realized how much my life was healed and made whole by the Holy words written so long ago.  There were many influences that provided support while I recovered, but none more powerful and
moving than the passages left by the Holiest of Priests. Surely, they saved me from the graveyard of grief.

My speech was almost complete, yet it lacked the final punch that would bring it full circle. I ached to emphasize to those in attendance how powerful God’s word had been to my healing, how it told me the best way to respond to my own emotions, how it guided me when dealing with others and how it confirmed that throughout human history God’s people suffered, but were always saved.

So I sat down and scoured The Bible for a passage that supported my experience, to see if what had happened to me, that is finding hope in God’s word, was meant to happen. From past experience, my faith has always grown when I look back and see my life played out as the scripture predicts. I had always heard it would happen, but I sought written Biblical confirmation that the scriptures possessed the power to change a person.

Sitting Indian style curled in a corner of my couch, I scoured the thin pages of The Holy Book. Flipping and flapping and finally, I simply split the pages in half and started reading right there. That is when I found the perfect punch line to round out my written words. I chuckled when I read it because it was right on.

“My son, pay attention to what I say, turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.”

Proverbs 4:20-22 (NIV)

Bingo, there it was with instructions on what to do with the Holy Writ, as well as what kind of outcome we can expect when we obey.

May it be, that by hearing these instructions written by the wise King Solomon that you may be open and altered by the powerful force of God’s written Word. I certainly was!