A Comfort.
Martha Lytle was only twenty-six when she and her husband packed up their home in North Carolina and set out for a new life in Columbus, Ohio, pursuing a much-needed job opportunity. As they drove north, Martha’s heart was heavy. Her marriage was rocky, and their financial situation was anxiety-inducing. She was leaving behind the only life she’d ever known, feeling like a pioneer with only one reliable compass—her Bible. “From the time I left North Carolina to when I got into Ohio, that Bible was in my lap every mile of the way,” she recalls. “I just felt like I was secure as long as I had my Bible in my lap, even though things looked mighty dim and uncertain for both of us at that time.”
Five years earlier Martha had received this particular Bible from her mother, Gertrude Garrett, as a Christmas gift. While Martha’s childhood home housed several copies of Scripture, this was the first one she could call her own. “That was the first Bible my Mom ever gave me. And it was my personal Bible ever since.” When asked why she held onto this Bible for so many years, Martha gives a simple answer: “That’s the one Mom gave me.”
After sixty years of use, Martha’s Bible could no longer be read without fear of it falling apart. “The outside cover was off, and it was just so shabby looking, and I thought, ‘That don’t look like what the Word of God’s supposed to look like.’” She entrusted the Bible to her friends, Steve and Sandra, hoping they could tape it back together. Unbeknownst to her, however, the couple went above and beyond a DIY repair, deciding instead to have this special Bible restored for Martha’s eighty-first birthday. “It’s a comfort to know that I’ve got it fixed,” she says gleefully. Now that it’s restored, she plans on passing it down to her oldest son, Randall. Choking back tears, she explains how she hopes this Bible will impact her firstborn: “It’s going to be something he’ll keep the rest of his life. I think he can hold that Bible and get comfort to know mom loved him enough to tell him about Jesus.”
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