Last spring, an old neighbor of my grandmother’s passed away, and it turned out she had a bench that used to be on my grandmother’s farm. My grandma has been gone for a long time, so when I got the chance to take that bench home, I was grateful. 

But when I saw it—the wood splintering and the feet rotting off—I was overwhelmed. It needed some serious TLC! My dad and I spent many spring afternoons power washing it, sanding it, putting in new screws, and finally painting it with a lovely natural finish. In the end, the formerly decayed bench glowed with new life.

One of my friends said to me, “Sit quietly, close your eyes, and you’ll hear conversations from 50 years ago.” What a thrilling thought!

Heirlooms are like that. They speak to us of who and what has gone before. They evoke memories, and we treasure them far more than their actual material worth.

The same can be said of the heirloom our Lord has passed down to us. The Bible. It’s been passed down carefully from generation to generation. It speaks to us of those who have gone before.

It’s priceless … far beyond the material cost of paper and binding glue.

And if you’re very quiet while you’re reading and close your eyes, you’ll definitely hear conversations from countless years ago.

What a precious heirloom indeed! “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).