Column: Across the Pastor’s Desk

By the Rev. Mark Boorsma, Ascension Lutheran Church

It would take an archeological dig through piles of paper, but I bet I could still find a certain Valentine’s card I have kept since fifth grade. I’m quite sure it wasn’t the biggest, best or most attractive card I received that year. Most of them were discarded long ago. I only kept that ‘special’ one because I had a whopping crush on the sender. My feelings were almost certainly not reciprocated. For all I know, my beloved sent identical “Be My Valentine” cards to all 30 classmates. There. I burst my own bubble.

So that’s one “budding romance” that never took hold. If I recall my fifth-grade self with any accuracy, I never spoke a word of my feelings to my beloved. Okay. As a Midwestern male of northern European ancestry, speaking my feelings would be rather like spontaneously singing in Hindi. So don’t hold your breath.

I’m thinking about valentines today, not only because Americans are expected to spend $17.3 billion on Valentine’s Day, but because it suggests my favorite metaphor for the Bible. The Bible is not a single book. It’s more like a library encompassing works of various genres, authors and time periods.

But I think most people have a simple, basic metaphor for the Bible. Some like the acronym Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The underlying metaphor then is written instructions for a distant goal. Some see the Bible as essentially a book of rules. Others see it as irrelevant, which is also a metaphor.

Metaphors matter.If you think the Bible is irrelevant, you won’t read it. If you think the Bible is a rule book, you will guess it to be as boring as a thick volume of state statutes. Or you will read it, as W. C. Fields did, “to find the loopholes.” If you think of the Bible as final instructions, you’ll likely put off reading until you think evacuation is imminent.

Since metaphors matter, I encourage you to imagine the Bible as a personal Valentine from the one who loves you best. I have yet to meet a person who saves a love letter, unopened, for rainy day reading. When a letter arrives from your beloved, you tear it open eagerly to see what it says. Valentines are always worth reading.

“You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” –Isaiah 43:4