To a Granddaughter

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16)

         My husband and I were blessed this month to have our granddaughter, Kassie Jo, with us for three weeks. During that time, she sang nonstop, with or without her beloved guitar, from the shower to the impromptu stage of our living room to my chair at the computer, where she recorded a song to put on Facebook. While I was driving her to the airport on her last day with us, I shared some thoughts from this verse with her. I thought perhaps I would elaborate somewhat and share them with you, as well, because no matter how public or nonpublic our singing may be, we’re all commanded over and over in the Word of God to “sing unto the Lord.”

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…”

         I love how God, through Paul, uses the adverb “richly” to intensify the verb “dwell” to show us just how much a part of us the Word of God should be. We used to hear how important it was to memorize portions of the Bible, though you don’t hear it preached much anymore, perhaps because the new translations sound less memorable. J But in the margin of my Bible, next to Psl. 119:11, you’ll still find these words: “The best Book in the best place for the best purpose.”

Still, it’s possible to have the words in your head but not your heart. More important than even memorization is internalization. And when we add the word “richly,” the internalization becomes more like saturation. The Word of God should be such a part of our lives that it shapes our very thinking and decision-making. We often say, “I’ll talk to God about doing such-and-such,” when many times, He has already made judgment on it. We simply have to read and do it. Some things are not mentioned by name in the Bible, but you can mark it down, the overriding principle to use for finding an exact answer will be there every time.

         Solomon tells us that wisdom comes from “the mouth of God” (Prov. 2:6); therefore, says Paul, we have wisdom in direct proportion to how full of the Bible we are. If our reading and absorbing of the Word is puny, so will our lives be. But if we “over-indulge,” to the point of saturation, we’ll discover one day that we’ve begun to think God’s thoughts behind Him and experience the joy of truly knowing God. Now if that possibility doesn’t get your engine going, your battery’s dead!

         And so, my dear Kassie, Soak in the Scriptures!