Hand-crafted
Most readers of this blog will know that I have recently moved. Within the last two months I have packed and unpacked well in excess of 100 boxes. This being so, it is hardly surprising that one or two things should go astray. The loss of a 300-year old book which I never read would hardly seem like the highest priority! However, I really wanted to find it before concluding my preaching lectures at Spurgeon’s College on their ‘Equipped to Minister’ course.
The book in question is beautifully bound copy on ‘The Imitation of Christ’ by Thomas a Kempis. As you can see, the woodcuts today are as fresh as they were on the day they were printed.
CLICK for full-size
However, it is not the content of the book, nor even the wonderful illustrations, which are my reason for taking it to my lectures on Saturday. I shall be passing the book around the class and encouraging each student to hold this old book in their hands. As they do so, they will realize that the hard leather of the cover has actually been shaped by the hands of old which have held it. Preachers get shaped – by their successes, by their failures, by their moments of heaven-splitting triumph and their moment of face-palming embarrassment. What is more – that is the way it should be. The preacher’s journey is one of discovery – both discovering ourselves and discovering the bottomless well of God’s strength made perfect in weakness.
CLICK to see how the cover is worn