If you read last week’s post, you will remember how I mentioned my journaling Bible being my most treasured physical possession. Here is a little testimony / back story about my Bible.
Back in January 2020, (before Covid went crazy and the world shut down) I got ready for church and went to grab my Bible and I couldn’t find it. I normally always bring it inside the house so I started to panic. I asked my husband to check the car just in case. Nope, not there. We checked everywhere. We moved furniture. Nada! I was nearly beside myself with worry. Where could it be?
We went ahead to church and I asked everyone individually if they had seen my Bible. I (and many others!) searched the church over for it and it just wasn’t to be found. Over the next few days, I looked and looked and still, not a hint of it—I was physically ill with worry about “losing” such a treasure!!
I began to wonder if I had accidentally left it in our car after church and perhaps someone had opened our car which was parked in our driveway and taken it. My husband didn’t think this was a plausible idea really though. Who steals Bibles?? He said. But I was convinced this could be the only explanation. I could not have just “lost” it!
More backstory: Weird things had been going on around the same time my Bible went missing. Both my kids woke up screaming in the middle of the night one night (separately at two different times that night) with nightmares but neither kid could recall what exactly the nightmare was about. They just woke up screaming their heads off and crying. First, it was my daughter and I finally got her back to sleep. I went to go lay back down and then my son started screaming and crying. Again, no recollection of the actual dream but both kids woke up petrified. After a bit, I got him settled back to sleep. I went back to bed again and had barely dozed off until I was then awakened to flashing emergency lights outside our bedroom window. (We live on a dead end road and we are acquainted with our neighbors so this was definitely cause for concern.) Later, I found out my elderly neighbor had stabbed himself multiple times with a knife while sitting in his car outside his house moments before. (probably near the time the kids woke up screaming in terror!)
It seemed as if dark forces were quite active in and around my neighborhood at that time. (yes! I do believe in literal demonic/spiritual warfare) There were other instances of weird occurrences. There were strange gang like fights among a few groups of local teens. (Again, small town — not used to this kind of thing) There were multiple separate shootings/murders in my surrounding town area. (All within a few miles of my neighborhood…) we live in a relatively quiet neighborhood area/town so all these things were very uncommon happenings.
But I digress—back to my missing Bible, weeks passed and I purchased another Bible to start over but I still was broken-hearted about the loss of my treasured one. I kept praying that God would somehow return it to me.
A month passed, then one day, a man called my church looking for me. He told the person that answered the phone that he had found my Bible. He gave the lady his name/number to give to me so he could arrange to return my missing Bible. I quickly called him back as soon as she told me. I was overjoyed and so so thankful. The gentleman who found my Bible ended up being one of our neighbors on my road just down the street from our house. He had found my Bible with the Bible carrying case ripped open and the Bible laying open, face down on the ground. He said it had rained the night before he found it and when he went outside the next morning, he noticed something lying by his back fence… He soon realized that it was a Bible. When he picked it up, it was sopping wet. He could tell it was a much loved, much treasured Bible so he took it inside and attempted to dry it out. (he did a good job, by the way!) Once he gave it some time to dry out, he began to flip through it and try to figure out who it belonged to… unfortunately, I never foresaw this circumstance and I didn’t have any contact information listed in my Bible at that time.
This wonderful gentleman, however, wouldn’t be deterred. He pieced info together from my notes and writings and found out my name and the name of the church I attend. He googled the name of our church and got the number and called and asked if there was a Tiphanie Sizemore who attended there that had recently lost a Bible. It was so amazing! Once I called him back and realized that he was indeed a neighbor of mine, my theory of my Bible being stolen from my car was proven correct. Based on the time frame we were able to put together, my neighbor believed my Bible was taken the same night that all that other stuff was happening. Not sure why, but it was definitely kinda weird. I suppose the thief may have assumed it was a purse in the darkness but once he/she found out that it was just a Bible, they appear to have just dropped it by my neighbor’s fence in their haste to get away.
No matter — I was super thankful for my neighbor finding my Bible and not just tossing it out. He took great pains with drying it out properly and as a result, the majority of all my notes and stuff were still intact. I was so grateful for the man’s kindness and for how the Lord worked behind the scenes to have my “treasured Bible” returned to me. It was like a physical part of me was restored when my Bible was once again in my hands.
I realized at that point just how much that Bible, chronicling my own spiritual journey, meant to me! It was a priceless treasure!!
But I also learned another valuable lesson!! Lol 😆 Always put your contact info in the front of your Bible! If it ever goes missing, it will make it so much easier on the person who finds it to contact you!! I’m just so glad the right person found mine—one who would be diligent and take the time to look me up however means necessary to get it back to me!!
Just wanted to share that interesting backstory about my Bible while we were on the subject. Hope you all have a blessed day!
♥️Tiphanie