Books

 Two of the greatest days in my childhood were the day I learned to read, and the day my grandmother took me to the Kurth Memorial Library in Lufkin, TX to get my first library card. Those two days brought me into a five decade love affair with books. I'm a helpless bookaholic. 

I remember reading my first words. "See Pug run." Pug was a dog character in our little primary readers. I also read about Ted and Jan. As the years passed and my reading skills increased, I recall a day that I became so engrossed in reading a book during some free time in class, I missed my change of classrooms for the next period. I loved reading the Hardy Boys detective series, Little House on the Prairie series and any sports books I could find. 

When my grandmother took me into that library, I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of books. I stood in awe. She escorted me to the children's section where I found several selections of fictional sports books. Later, I learned to love biographies and autobiographies. I currently have seven shelves devoted to those books alone. 

As much as I try, I am not a fast enough reader to read all that I want to digest. I have several thousand books in my study. I have not read most of them, though I try. So much information. So much theology. So many lessons to learn. 

This got me curious today. I wondered what is the largest library in the world. I did a search and found out what I suspected. The U.S. Library of Congress. That library contains 70 million books in addition to other materials. Next, I wondered what the largest libraries in the U.S. were after the Library of Congress. Once again, my suspicions were true when I guessed the New York City Public Library containing 65 million books, periodicals, and reference research materials. 

As a native Texan where everything is bigger and better, I was surprised to find that the Dallas Public Library is only number nine of the largest in America with 5.1 million books. Houston did not make the list until number twenty-three with 3 million books. 

All this information whetted my appetite to know more. When I did a search for the largest bookstore in the world I came up with two answers. The Barnes and Nobles on Fifth Avenue in New York City has the largest floor space. Powell's Books in Portland, OR is considered the largest because it has the most shelf space, shelving an estimated 1 million books. Powell's takes up an entire city block. 

One more question popped into my mind. How many books are in the world? In 2010 a research group came up with the number of 129,864,880 unique books. THAT IS A LOT OF BOOKS!

Another group did another study on the topic of how many books are in the world in 2023. They came up with 158,464,880 unique books in the world. A more recent study estimated that about 2.2 million books get published every year. 

I am sure this information has bored you. I promise it is leading to something spiritually significant. No. This is not a plea to get people to read more books, though I believe that is a good thing. I have written several and Brenda has not read one of them. Her famous line is, "I lived them. Why do I need to read them?" 

Of all the books I love to read, none is more valuable to me than the Bible. Many years ago I committed to see how many times I can read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation in my life. I keep a record of each time I finish. I set a lofty goal for myself that keeps my nose in those pages in the wee hours of the morning. That is when I came across a verse I have read numerous times before. That verse served as the catalyst for this blog. What did I read? 

[John 21:25] And there are also many other things that Jesus did which if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.

In the four Gospels we only have a small summary of the miraculous things He did. Just a fraction of those works were recorded in scripture. He did much much more. More than could be written and housed in the Library of Congress, New York City Library, Powell's Books, and even more than the entire history of books in the world at over 159 million of them. John wrote the world could not contain enough space to hold all the books of all the things that could be written that Jesus did while on earth. 

What about everything He has done since walking on the earth in person? It is mind boggling. We live in an age when people try to shrink the Savior so they can better understand Him or relate to Him. He is not just Jesus. He is the LORD JESUS CHRIST! The fullness of God dwelt in Him. The scripture only scratch the surface of what Jesus Christ did in those 33 years He walked among men. I am awed. Bewildered. Stunned by His Sovereignty and Supremacy. What a Savior. I bow in awe of Him and devote my life to know and serve Him anew.