THE BIBLE IN MY LIFE June 11, 2007 Issue

'STRIKING DOWN DEEP TO THE ROCK'

NANCY CASE

I GREW UP ON THE BIBLE as much as on milk and mashed potatoes. At home and in Sunday School, I took in the spirit of the Scriptures, if not the letter, long before I could read them myself. Their comfort, love, and truth were to me solid as rock.

When I grew old enough to reason over those verses, my appreciation for the word sent down exploring roots. Sunday School teachers often asked, "What does this verse mean to you?" Somewhere along my adolescent years, I began to take real delight in probing beneath the literal message of a text to find its spiritual meaning. I loved how practical these spiritual truths were in healing me or a pet, or in assuring me of the intelligence I could express in school because it came from God. But I think I also loved the Bible instinctively (and still do) for its poetry—in particular, for the way the sounds, rhythms, and metaphors of the King James Version carry its messages to the heart.

I've found the King James most helpful in leaving the door wide open to spiritual interpretation. When my need has been especially great, I've mined the verses "like a collier," as Welsh-born poet Godfrey John once put it. A frequent contributor to the Sentinel in the past, John wrote in his poem "Coal" of those who love something they know to be "underneath somewhere," and look deep in the seam to find it, "striking down deep to the rock."