Monday, November 1, 2021 Collectors

When you enter into someone’s home, you will soon see whether or not you are in the presence of a collector. They might have a collection of spoons hung on a wall, or perhaps a collection of Hummel figurines in a glass case. Maybe your collecting friend has chosen dolls, owls, or fowls and has them assembled on shelves. We visited someone recently who had an entire garage set aside for a collection of cars.

I never thought of myself as a collector, although I do have a small wall display of little cats that my mother gave me over the years.

However, after recently putting all our books on an app called “Book Buddy,” and after adding our last two book purchases to come to the total of 1,900 books, I think it’s safe to say that we are book collectors.

Have you ever met someone who didn’t understand the concept of keeping books in your home? They look at you, rather puzzled, and say, “Isn’t that what public libraries are for?” Or even worse, the people who don’t see any point to reading a book twice or more. And then there’s the dirty secret of all book collectors: we haven’t read all the books we own. Why clutter up your home with books, many of which you haven’t even read yet?

When I go to someone’s home for the first time, I always look for their book collection. If I see shelves and shelves of them, I know I have found a kindred spirit, even if we don’t read the same types of things.

For my part, I like to think of myself as a Story Collector. Whether the books on my shelves are fiction or non-fiction, they tell a story, even the reference books. And to the extent that they reflect the truths of the One True Story Teller, they have value. It is said, “all truth is God’s truth.” I’d like to think that all 1,900 of our books in some way contain elements of the truth, beauty and goodness of God, but since I haven’t read about 50% of them, I can’t make that claim for sure. I can say that the only book we own that is completely true and trustworthy is the Bible. If you only keep one book, let it be that one.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
2 Timothy 3:16

Monday Meanderings has been brought to you by Lynniebeemuseoday. By the way, I started NaNoWriMo for the first time today. For those of you who don’t understand that strange word, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. I’m going to work on making the Martin Chronicles into a novel. Wish me luck! Well, I don’t believe in luck, so wish me God’s grace! On second thought, I don’t think wishing does much good, so how about this, pray for God’s grace for me in this endeavor. Soli Deo Gloria.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning unless I decide to start a collection of blog posts.