...Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies
-William Shakespeare-
(Venus and Adonis)
I folded my toes under my tighs as I sat cross legged with my back resting against the pillows at the head if my bed.
I had fished out my bible from an abandoned corner of my box. I'm even surprised I brought it with me because I hardly ever read it.
Now it was sitting nicely beside me on the duvet cover waiting to be opened. I opened my phone and located my notepad where I recorded the scriptures Mrs. Okafor told me to read at the mall.
There.
Isaiah 43:3 in the Message translation,
the whole chapter of Isaiah 53 in the King James translation
The crucifixion story in Matthew in any version
Picking up the bible, I flipped the pages through the old testament to the book of Isaiaih. We were taught in Sunday school the books of the bible in chronological order. The rhyme which was used to teach us began ringing in my head…
Gen-e-sis, Ex-o-dus,
Le-vi-ti-cus N-um-bers
De-utero-no-my,
Josh-ua Judg-es
Ruth,
Sam-uel Sam-uel
1 kings, 2kings
Chronicles Chronicles…
A smile crept to my lips and I laughed. At least it helped me locate the book of Isaiah.
I remembered how they taught us it was located around the middle of the bible and that it was the only book with exactly sixty-six chapters…the same number of books in the bible.
Not so hard to spot eh?
I flipped to the forty-third chapter and narrowed down to the third verse. Then I realised that my bible wasn't in the message translation but the KJV.
It'll be on my phone then.
Just like she told me to, I downloaded the YouVersion bible app and so I opened it with a click and the welcome page appeared.
I put in my details and created an account. The app then opened into the home page.
I tapped on the little bible icon at the bottom and the table of contents came up. At the top left corner, there was written KJV with a little arrow facing down beside it. Clicking on it, the other available versions appeared and I searched out the Message translation.
I finally found it and downloaded it, then went back to the table of contents to locate the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 43:3 (MSG)
I paid a huge price for you:
all of Egypt, with rich Cush
and Sheba thrown in!
That's how much I love you!
I'd sell off the whole world
to get you back,
trade the creation just for you!
I stopped at that point and looked up wondering if I did read it correctly. I bent and went over it again, but slowly and more meditatively this time. When I was done, I found out it was the same, only more wonderful even.
I couldn't believe my eyes. Did God really feel that way? Could he really do that? If he could, did he?
Curious, I read further and what I saw amazed me.
