Reading The Bible is an interesting process, should one wish to do it. Where do you start exactly?

Do you start at the very beginning at Genesis and read about creation? Or do you start with the New Testament and the Gospel of Matthew? Or do you start at the back, Revelation and see how the whole thing is going to turn out at the end? Or do you do the random flick and read whichever verse you find first?

Personally, I don’t mind a bit of a random flick. Sometimes a random flick is great and you can find a sentence that is exactly what you need to read at that time. And sometimes that random flick can lead you to a verse that you never thought would be meaningful out of context and yet it, bizarrely, is profoundly meaningful.

Recently I’ve been reading through the Gospel of Luke and last Sunday I discovered that my Church was preaching through the section of Luke that I am reading. This also means there were free Bible reading notes that I could take home last week. Bonus.

The reading notes encouraged me to memorise a verse for the week.

When I glanced back to my Bible, the first verse I saw was at the end of the section I’d just read: “and they went to another village.” (Luke 9:56… in case you’re wondering…) Personally I’m going to reflect on this verse this week because it amuses me.

It also instantly reminded me of a conversation on The Simpsons between Homer and Reverend Lovejoy:

Reverend Lovejoy: Homer, I’d like you to remember Matthew 7:26. “The foolish man who built his house upon the sand.”

Homer: [pointing a finger] And you remember [thinks] Matthew… 21:17.

Reverend Lovejoy: [confused] “And he left them and went out of the city, into Bethany, and he lodged there”?

Homer: Yeah. Think about it.*

So many years later and those lines are still funny. It also makes the point that sometimes a random flick is not such a great idea. Or maybe it is? Who knows? Perhaps something to meditate on this week.

The Lord moves in mysterious ways. Far be it for me to pre-empt or restrict how he chooses to move. Why not give it a go? Find a Bible. Flick it open. Read the first verse you find. Then commit it to memory.

It might be amusing. It might be confusing. It might also be a really dumb idea.

Yet, it’s also possible that it could be profoundly meaningful. You never know.

God might have a message for you.

Yours in random flicking,

Alison

Image Credit: Image from Public Domain Pictures

* Thanks to https://www.quotes.net/mquote/922539 for giving me the exact lines. And thanks to Matt Groening et al. for actually writing them in the first place 🙂