Sunday 1st March 2026
A Gift from God
As it is St David’s Day I thought it would be appropriate to begin with a story from Wales.
A few years ago Kim and I were on holiday near Bala and on a walk around the lake we discovered an old chapel that had been converted into a small museum called the Mary Jones Centre. We discovered the very moving story of Mary Jones.
Over 200 years ago near Bala a young girl about 9 years old lived with her parents in a poor community. They attended the local chapel and it was there she heard the Bible being read by the minister. She marvelled at the wonderful words and stories that she heard. At the time she couldn’t read but fortunately a school opened nearby and there she was able to learn to read. Also with a neighbour she learned to read the Bible. She dreamed of having her own Bible but they were very expensive and her family was poor.
She did not give up on the dream. She began to save from the odd jobs she did. Six years later when Mary was 15 she now had the money to buy a Bible. She heard that a clergyman who lived in Bala had Bibles for sale. She set off on the 25 mile walk. Having arrived there she found the clergyman, Charles Thomas. He had a Bible for her to buy and the following day she set off home with her own precious Bible. What a gift! A treasure!
Charles Thomas was so moved by Mary Jones and her wish to have her own Bible in her own language that a few years later he and friends set up the British and Foreign Bible Society so others could have the gift of a Bible in their own language wherever they lived. Mary’s actual Bible is in the Bible Society Archive in Cambridge University Library. As a church we support the Bible Society, as it is now called, with our giving from church.
This story made me think about how important Bibles have been in my own life. I was brought up in a Christian family and regularly attended church and Sunday School. Although I had story books as a child it was the first real Bible that I remember. Here it is: “Presented to Robert Fox for good attendance, Christ Church Adventurers, December 1967.” I was so proud to have my own Bible but sadly it was largely unread at the time as it was too difficult for me to read at the age of 10.
It was a gift of another Bible a few years later that made all the difference. I was in an RE class at the age of probably 15 when I won a prize. I won a Bible. I am not sure what my 15 year old self thought of that, but it was transforming as it was a modern translation of the Bible – a Good News Bible. In a sense this was a Bible in my own language. I did not know it at the time but it was a great gift. That RE teacher was constantly giving prizes away of Bibles – I wonder how many young people had their lives changed by this.
The fact that I no longer have that Bible, as it fell apart, is testament to how important it was as I came to my own faith in Jesus and started to read the Bible as part of my daily life.
Have you ever given a gift of a Bible?
We may have a Bible as a gift but it’s not the actual book that is the gift – it is what it contains that is the true gift.
This week in Draw Near we are going to look at the life-giving habit of sharing the Scriptures, reading the Bible. Is reading the Bible a daily habit for you? It certainly can be a life-transforming, life-giving habit. A precious gift filled with treasure.
As we go through the daily readings this week we will be thinking about the different ways in which the Scriptures are important in our lives.
We talk about Scripture as being the living word of God. It is the way in which God can speak to us each day as we hear Scripture, His word. If you are meeting in a Lent group then you will have an opportunity this week to talk together about how you read the Bible.
Today we have had two readings, one from Romans and one from the Gospel of John. These are not just words to be read but they are from God.
In the Gospel of John we have Nicodemus seeking answers to his questions about Jesus. He was able to go to Jesus and ask them directly. As we have questions about Jesus the place we can seek them is in the words of Scripture, in our Bibles.
The answers that Nicodemus has from Jesus were important for him but they are also important for us. As we read them we can hear Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, talking to us and challenging us. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about being born from above, being born of the Spirit. This is a spiritual rebirth. Some translations call this being born again.
Jesus is asking Nicodemus to believe. He is asking us to believe. There is the promise of eternal life for Nicodemus and we too have that promise. We have the words in Scripture: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
These words in Scripture tell us of the gift of Jesus as our saviour who died on the cross so that we could be forgiven our sins and because we believe we have eternal life. Jesus is speaking to us through the Scriptures.
We read the words of Scripture and sometimes they need time to get from our heads to our hearts. There is one Anglican church I know where, before they read the Gospel, they say together: “We pray that your word may be in our minds, on our lips and deep in our hearts.”
How can we get it deep in our hearts? One of the ways is to read a passage from the Bible and then ask the Holy Spirit to show us a particular sentence or word. Then take that sentence or word and spend time meditating on it, allowing God to speak to us through it. Taking time allows the words to sink into our hearts, then we can pray about how it affects us and those we live with.
Sometimes we have a passage from the Bible that is difficult to understand when we look at it the first time. That may be true of the passage from Romans that we have read this morning. St Paul’s writing is not always straightforward to understand. It sometimes takes time to allow understanding of his writings, but it is worth it. You may say there is buried treasure in it.
It is sometimes helpful to read the passage in another translation of the Bible. The New Living Translation can be a very helpful one. We are fortunate that we can have access these days to lots of different translations of the Bible. Even on my phone I have a Bible app so I can look up any passage in the Bible in many translations.
Maybe later today look again at Romans 4, especially verses 1–5. Think about what God is saying to you.
The life-giving habit of reading the Bible will enable God to use the words we read to speak to us each day. Let us dig deeper into this during the coming week as we continue with our Lent readings. If you need a booklet they are at the back, also available as an app.
I am going to use the prayer for this week in the Lent booklet Draw Near to finish:
O Lord, you have given us your word
for a light to shine upon our path.
Grant us so to meditate on that word
and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light
that shines more and more
until the perfect day;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.