Amelia Bedelia Bible Readers

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

As a kid, I loved the Amelia Bedelia books. For a second grade project, I even decorated a pumpkin to look like her, with the classic yellow flowers bordering her bonnet. 

My dad, however, did not love Amelia Bedelia quite so much. As far as children’s books go, the Amelia Bedelia ones tend towards the longer side, which I think was part of the reason my dad didn’t like them. His problem with the books went beyond length though—it was saying “Amelia Bedelia” out loud over and over and over. After a while, he’d start calling her “Emmy Lou” to avoid the bouncing syllables of “Amelia Bedelia.” Having read the books out loud to my niece, I now understand the temptation to do just that.

It seems to me that we often do a similar thing with the Bible. Even as we read Matthew 6:19-24 on Sunday, it struck me that I’ve rarely heard anything about verses 22 and 23. I’ve heard verses 19-21 used as a nice reminder to not seek after the things of this world, and verse 24 often gets quoted in messages about not loving money. But verses 22 and 23 are a bit confusing. They don’t seem to fit with the theme of the passages around them, about where our ultimate treasures should be found. It’s tempting to gloss over them and just carry on with what we can understand. 

The problem is, when we take this approach to the Bible—of turning “Amelia Bedelia” into “Emmy Lou” for the sake of ease—we miss out on really important things. When we dig into Matthew 6:22-23, as Pastor Dirk did on Sunday, we discover it’s about having an open heart, and ultimately a lifestyle of generosity that reflects God’s generosity towards us. Suddenly, its placement among talk of where we store our treasure makes a lot more sense. If our treasure is truly not in the things of this world, it should cause us no pain to be generous with we have—with our money, our talents, our time, and whatever else God has given us. 

Replacing tricky Bible passages with simplified explanations is tempting, but it’s not the way to learn what God is really teaching us. When we refuse to gloss over the difficult verses and really dig into them, we can find that everything around it begins to make more sense as well. 

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]