“Irreplaceable”
Growing up a pastor’s kid, Michelle Morrison was around the Bible her entire childhood. But as a young person, God’s Word hadn’t captivate her yet. When her parents gave her a NKJV Bible for Christmas in 1988, she wasn’t thrilled. “I wasn’t interested in reading it as a teenager. I was like ‘whatever.’” Things changed, however, in 2002 when one of Michelle’s friends challenged her to read the entire Bible, cover-to-cover. Accepting the challenge, Michelle read through every book of Scripture for two consecutive years, first using an NIV Bible and then a NASB one. The results were transformative. “Those years that I was reading through [the Bible] were very pivotal for me in my faith. I had never realized the connection between the Old and New Testaments. And it changed everything for me.”
In 2004, sixteen years after she received it, Michelle took the NKJV Bible from her parents and read it from cover-to-cover. She was hooked. “For some reason, that Bible, that specific version speaks to me. So I started making all these notes in it.” Michelle dated her margin notes, giving her future self “a great reminder of what God was saying to me or what he was pointing out to me at that time.” Today, this Bible still plays an important role in Michelle’s life, as she continues to read and take notes in the Bible’s margins every day. But nineteen years of daily use had left a mark. “It started falling apart after so many years of use like that. I duct taped it together a couple of times… I didn’t want to use it because pages were coming out.”
Despite the trouble that comes from reading a Bible that’s falling apart, Michelle couldn’t part ways with this one. “I think I’ve had three replacement Bibles, and it’s not the same. I can’t do it. No other Bible has my notes from that time, and it’s just not the same.” The Bible has even taken on a deeper importance to her this past year, with the passing of her father. “Now it just means even more to me that it came from [my parents].”
Michelle is excited that the Bible Restoration Service will allow her to carry her Bible everywhere again: “To know I can continue to use it, and take it to church without worrying about it falling apart… so that I can actually have the benefit of those notes that I took while I’m in study, regardless of where I’m at.” She’s even considering reading through it again, cover-to-cover, now that it’s restored.
THE BIBLE’S REPAIR NEEDS:
For Michelle’s Bible there were three main elements we needed to repair:
The Bible’s cover needed to be replaced
The Bible’s loose and wrinkled pages needed to be repaired.
The Bible’s spine needed to be reinforced.
THE BIBLE REPAIR PROCESS:
NEW LEATHER COVER
While beautiful because of its history, the cover on Michelle’s Bible was cracking and attached to the book with duct tape. We removed the cover and crafted a new one in our c1450 leather, adding the personalization “Michelle Morrison” to the bottom right-hand corner. Unlike the original, this leather cover will wear in, not out, so that Michelle can protect her note-covered pages for many more years of Bible study.
REMOVE WRINKLES FROM PAGES
Several pages in Michelle’s Bible were wrinkled from age and use. Wrinkled pages can make it difficult to read or take notes on a passage. They also make the pages uneven when the Bible is closed. We slowly removed many of the wrinkles by hand using a heat-based method, so that Michelle can continue to take notes in this Bible (something she still enjoys doing).
REATTACH LOOSE PAGES
Apart from the loose cover, loose pages were one of the primary issues with Michelle’s Bible. As mentioned earlier, she stopped taking this Bible to church for fear of losing certain pages. We repaired these loose pages by hinging them to their neighboring pages and sewing them back into the Bible’s spine, guaranteeing they’ll remain attached for a long time.
STRAIGHTEN THE SPINE
When closed and viewed from the top down, Michelle’s Bible had certain pages sticking out further than others. This was caused by a warped spine and the loose pages. So in addition to resewing the pages that were falling out of Michelle’s Bible, we also straightened the spine with pressure and physical reinforcement. Now none of the pages stick out further than the others, giving the Bible a more uniform and like-new look.
ADD CUSTOMIZATIONS (NEW HEADBAND + RIBBONS)
To complete the Bible Restoration Service for Michelle’s Bible, we added new headbands and a single black ribbon, now giving her two ribbon markers to use during Bible study. These final elements give the Bible a fresh-yet-subtle new look.
Need to Restore Your Bible?
It was an honor to restore Michelle’s Bible from 1988.
We’d be honored to restore your Bible next.