Literary Journeying

Almost every evening I watch jets taking off into the sunset.

I live near an international airport and my neighborhood walking trail curves around the back of the runways.

Sometimes I wish I were on one of those planes, flying to Italy or Paris or some other exciting destination, and other times I breathe a big sigh of relief that I'm staying home without the hassles of traveling.

Before I ever thought about journeying to faraway places, I read books about girls who traveled. I felt as if I were along for the adventure when my fictional heroines packed their bags. Even now, my favorite books to read are letters and diaries from women who traveled.

Sometimes I think I like reading about traveling more than actually traveling.

{I'm reluctant to admit that since it makes me sound highly unadventurous.}

But part of travel's appeal for me is the spacious stretch of time I have to read during the hours it takes to get to my destination.

I got an early start at this practice.

Every summer, my sister and I filled the backseat of our car with stacks of books to occupy us as my parents drove us from Pittsburgh to Florida for our family vacation.

I couldn't imagine going anywhere without my books.

And I still can't. I always pack my carry-on with far too many books for my journey and then have to lug the unwieldy bag through airports.

Trips are bookmarked in my mind by what I'm reading.

The summer I was eleven, I sat on a beach in Ft. Lauderdale while Prince Edward Island enchanted me through the pages of Anne of Green Gables.

Only once do I recall my mother getting mad at my sister and me for reading.

Driving through Washington, DC, she was pointing out landmarks from the front seat but both of us were in the back, absorbed in our books. I closed mine just a few minutes before my mother turned around and ordered my sister to put down a book she could read anytime we WEREN'T in our nation's capital.

{For once, my timing was impeccable.}

So even though traveling through books is second nature to me, I’ve never journeyed through the Bible from beginning to end.

This summer I decided to meander through passages of chapter and verse, with no timetable or ambitious goal of finishing within a year.

These stories are quite familiar to me since I grew up in the church.

I’ve heard about Adam and Noah, Moses, Joshua and David. I know about the Bible’s women like Eve and Sarah and Ruth and Esther.

But I'm also making my way through the books of Leviticus and Numbers, with their myriad of laws and endless lists of names. And I'm reading the stirring chronicles of kings and nations and battles.

There are plenty of travelers in these books who pack up all they have and leave home, sometimes without even knowing where they're going. They wander and settle, scatter and rebuild, always yearning for their home.

And during their journeys, as they attempt to pick up the rubble of their lives, God steps in and does something beautiful among the ruins.

It's his story, after all, that I'm reading in these pages, the history of God.

I didn't expect to become so absorbed in the stories of those who had lived so long ago, but I think about them during the day and I look forward to picking up where I left off.

I'm struck by the thought that I'm just another living soul in the very long history of this world who is captivated by God's story.

There are books that take us to places we've never been.

And there's a book that takes us closer to the heart of God.

Most nights, I stop on my neighborhood trail to watch a few jets head up into the skies brushed with the blazing colors of sunset and I wonder if any passengers have filled their bags with books.

I keep reminding myself to look into buying an e-reader {although I'm not a fan} so I can ease my book-load for my next trip.

It might unburden my suitcase, but I don't think it can take the place of that crinkled Anne of Green Gables paperback I accidentally dropped in a puddle beside the pool that summer in Ft. Lauderdale.

I think writers are the best inspirational travel guides and we readers bravely journey to wherever their words take us.

I'm joining my friends at Holley Gerth's place for Coffee for your Heart.