God: The Ultimate Research Librarian

I've been reading a lot lately and is so often the case, as one reads one thing, it inevitably leads you down a trail in another direction. In some of my reading I read about someone named Aelred of Rievaulx and I was keen on finding some of his books so I headed back to the Calvin library today. My pray throughout this entire process is that I would read the things that God wanted me to read. Today that prayer was answered in a mind blowing fashion.

So I'm walking through the stacks, and around the corner from the book I'm heading for I saw a glimpse of some alluring books, all lined up on three rows with identically beautiful binding. The library orange, blue, green and brown of generic bindings will never cause me to stop in my tracks, but these were the kinds of books any true book lover would want to have on his shelf. As I looked at the books, I realized it was a series of the writings of the early church fathers, a topic that has always fascinated. I literally let me fingers do the walking and stopped randomly on a book written by Clement of Alexandria.

Let's talk Clement for a moment. He lived from c. 150-211 or 216. That's a long time ago, and what I'm looking for is writing in the church, outside of scripture, that supports what I'm writing about.

I opened up the book, saw the table of contents, went to a page that looked promising, and there, in the very first chapter is a passage that blew me away and that will feature prominently in my book. It's exactly what I felt I needed to find last night, and there today, God led me right to it.

I'm enjoying the ride and today's amazing discovery confirms for me once again that I'm supposed to be writing. I feel at peace, and I'm enjoying seeing where the path leads me. As I was walking through the library yesterday I thought of my favorite children's book, Harold and the Purple Crayon. For the most part, Harold does the drawing, and then he gets himself into trouble. Eventually, we've got to learn to put down the crayon and let God do the drawing. If we do that, we're in good hands.

I was stunned today.