A Paper Trail

1. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled.”                       1 John 1:1

         A paper trail is a written or printed record of someone’s activities. When those activities are illegal or even questionable, an individual will take great pains to eliminate any kind of paper trail, hoping that any accusation against him or her will not go beyond hearsay. Politicians and other public figures, as well as embezzlers and other felons are quite adept at this. Obviously, someone who would write and freely distribute a truthful record of his or her activities could be said to consider those activities to be above reproach, and possess a desire to make them verifiable. Now, if we consider a “hard copy,” a paper trail, if you will, to be the best means of provability, why should we expect anything less of God?

         I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God did leave us a paper trail. And as a matter of fact, I would contend that I possess an infallible copy of it. I am not forced to compare it to anything else; there is nothing comparable. I have proved it by both thorough examination and years of experimentation. When the blessed Holy Spirit first opened my heart and mind to the reality of God and the power of His Book in my own life, I found I was no longer proving Him to myself; I was proving myself to Him (2 Tim. 2:15). God has chronicled His redemptive history in the pages of what I like to call an “Authorized Autobiography” that not only tracks Him, but us too. His infallibility and our culpability are plain to see; but, O, praise His name! His remedy (the Cross and the Empty Tomb) and our release (repentance and faith) are just as plain to see.

         The fact that God has given me a Book that I can hold in my hands and read gives me the same thrill, I think, that the Apostle John must have experienced, when he wrote that first verse of his first Epistle, speaking of Jesus Christ. As he says, they heard, saw, and “handled” the “Word of life.” How about you? Is there such a Book in your own life? Don’t be satisfied just to say God’s Word is “out there somewhere.” God was always out there somewhere, too; but one day, He became flesh, and they were able to handle Him with their hands. And in the same way, God’s Word was there from the beginning, but one day it became something we could handle with our hands.

         God has left us a Paper Trail…follow it!