Reading Every Word of His Word

This morning I finished something that I'm not sure I've ever done before.  I have now read every word of His Word. 

In the past, I have jumped around in my Bible reading, spent months on one book, read and re-read my favorite books, avoided Leviticus and Amos and Ezekiel.  But I wanted to be intentional about reading every word this time around.  And so, last spring, I started reading a portion of the Old and New Testaments every day (or nearly every day), straight through.  

As I look back over the last year's journey, two things stand out clearly.  The first being something very fascinating.  And that is, that nearly every book of the Bible mentions in one way or another the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the journey to the Promised Land.  (I wish now that I would have listed each book that does so and counted them up.  I plan to do that very thing on my second go-round.)  It's very clear that that story is hugely important to our lives, and perhaps it's because we are living it out right here and now.  The Lord has delivered us from Egypt, from bondage, and He desires that we follow the Deliverer through this Wilderness and Home to the Promised Land.  I can now hardly wait to get back to the book of Exodus.  If this story is so important that God refers to it again and again and again, I figure that I best pay closer attention to it.

The second thing that I knew before, but hit me ever harder, was the continual thread of God's relentless pursuit of His creation, of us.  His Word is nothing but one constant, faithful attempt to draw mankind to Himself.  His intense, passionate, and radical desire that every person would know, experience, accept, and rejoice in His love for us cannot be denied.  I found my heart welling up with thankfulness again and again as this fact was made so poignantly clear.

And so, I begin again.  Back to Genesis, back to Matthew.  Digging, groaning, rejoicing, pondering and plodding on.  Looking for Him, for His love for me, in every line.  What riches -