“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” Ecclesiastes 12:12b
“You and mama sure have a lot of books!”
This is what our daughter said to me this weekend as we rearranged some furniture, including some bookcases in the front room.
Moving the book cases meant emptying the shelves of their contents, and our daughter wanted to help, so I put her on book-moving duty.
My wife and I do have a lot of books, at least compared to the average American couple. The irony is that we probably don’t have as many books as you would expect in the home of two English professors. I doubt we have as many books in our home as my parents do.
But it’s not just the number of books. Our daughter, after all, has at least a hundred kids books piled up in her room.
It’s that the books we have on our shelves are books of high literature — scholarly editions of Tolstoy and Dickens and Shakespeare — or, even more esoteric, books about books of high literature. You thought Hamlet was too long? Try reading a book of essays about what Hamlet means!
Believe me, as someone who spends his life teaching reading and writing, I know that much studying wearies the body.
Still, it did my heart good to see our daughter fascinated by the weird books on my shelf. I wanted to get rid of some of the ones I know I’ll never read to make room for others I’m more interested in, but she didn’t want me to throw any of them away.
“I love this cover!” She explained. “I wonder what it’s about?”
As it turned out, it was a book about literary theory, not about cats (though there was a cat on the cover). I’m guessing one page from that book would be enough to convince her the book should be gotten rid of.
Still, with a love of books comes the hope and prayer that she will love the book, God’s word, and delight in reading it.
The best books on our shelves point to God, either through their beauty or their convicting representation of humanity. Some of the most important spiritual events in my life came as a result of reading the books on these shelves.
Yes, books may be wearying, but you know what? So is raising a kid!
The words of God are life. He made the world with words. We show that we are made in His image when we make books.
Here’s to a child who loves books and a prayer that the only weariness that comes from them involves moving them on and off of a shelf!