The importance of Bible Reading- with Chloe
Written by: Rebecca Holsapple

Chloe woke up that morning on the verge of tears. Her family had moved to the next town over during the Christmas break and it was now time to go back to school…a new school. She didn’t know anybody there and was not looking forward to be in a strange new place.

She knew it had to be done so she put on her school uniform a blue and grey plaid skirt and a white button shirt. She went to the bathroom washed her face, brushed her teeth and put some mousse in her curly blond hair. As she was getting ready she was praying that Jesus would be with her today and help her not to cry at school.

She was always very bubbly so when she walked into the kitchen with a very serious demeanor her mom knew she was very nervous about going.

“Oh honey, I am sure everything will go well. I’ll take you to the bus stop this morning and Daddy will be there to pick you up at the end of the day. “

Chloe’s big blue eyes filled up with tears and she couldn’t help but let out a sob. She had made good friends at her old school and she already missed them so much. Her best friend Samantha and she had been in the same class. She had been so excited about moving to their new house she has not taken the time to think about all the different changes it would bring.

Mom came and gave Chloe a hug. They took a moment to pray together and ate breakfast quietly. Mom knew Chloe had a lot on her mind.

As she was grabbing her book bag which was empty at the moment, she decided to grab her Bible. She could read it at recess. Mom handed her her lunch box and they walked to the bus stop together.

The bus got there a minute later and she found an empty seat near the front. She could tell a lot of the kids were wondering who she was, but she didn’t feel like making eye contact or talking right now. She was still too anxious.

When she got to school a nice teacher took her to her classroom and made her feel very comfortable. She took a seat and the girl next to her introduced herself :” Hi! My name is Eliza. What’s yours?”

“Chloe” she said mustering a small smile.

“You must be new!! I’ve never seen you here before! You’ll see it’s a great school! And we are so lucky our teacher is the best teacher in the whole school!! I’ll take you all around! Your hair is so pretty! I think we’ll be great friends! ” Eliza was a bit of a chatter box. Chloe was glad for it, she was still pretty tense but Eliza was quickly putting her at ease.

The first class went really well. She was glad the teacher only made her stand at her seat while she introduced her and didn’t make her go up front. It was English and she was happy to know she was up to date on everything they class had learned. Her stress was fading more and more.

The bell rang, it was time for recess. Chloe puller her Bible out of her back pack and headed outside with everybody else. She found a quiet spot and started reading. The Bible always gave her so much comfort.

Eliza walked up to her a few minutes later and sat down beside her. “ Hey Chloe! What are you reading? I just read the greatest book! Maybe we could trade when you are done!”

“I’m reading the Bible. I'm reading in Psalms right now.” Said Chloe, she was back to being her upbeat self again. “It has so many comforting passages... I was so afraid this morning. I didn’t know what to expect, but God lead me the whole way and I got to meet you and you are so nice. The class is great and so is the teacher.”

Eliza expression had changed a little. She looked almost puzzled. “The Bible….I’ve heard of it of course, but I thought it was for preachers. Not for us…10 year old girls… Isn’t it complicated? Do you actually understand what it says? I’ve heard some from it at my grandma’s church, I wasn’t paying close attention but I didn’t really understand.”

“ Yes, I read it, and understand a lot of it, but when I have questions I ask my parents or sometimes my Sunday school teacher.”

“Wow!” Eliza was speechless. This had to be a first!

“It’s a great help, if I don’t know what to do in different situations, when I need confort, like today. It helps me know God better, know what He wants me to do and how much he loves me.”

“Wow!” Obviously Eliza had never heard of the Bible in those terms.

The bell rang and the girls had to head back inside. Eliza turned to Chloe and said :” You know what!? I want to learn more about the Bible! Will you show me what you do?”

“Of course! I would be happy to! Maybe you could come to my house tomorrow night after school.? Chloe asked.

“I’ll ask my mom tonight when I get home and tell you in the morning if it’s going to work out.” Eliza said.

“Sounds great! I’ll have to make sure my parents are ok with it too, but I would be surprised if they weren’t. They always love to talk about God and the Bible.” Chloe smiled warmly at her new friend.

The rest of the school day went great! Chloe could not believe she had been worried at all. Everybody was so nice and she now was really looking forward to Eliza’s visit tomorrow evening. She prayed it would work out and she could be a witness her.

As Chloe hopped out of the bus, she saw her dad standing by the stop sign waiting for her. She ran quickly and gave him a big hug.

“So how did it go , honey?” said Dad with a grin. He could see just by looking at her that she was past all the worry from that morning Mom had told him about.

“Oh dad, it was great!!! I made a great new friend, her name is Eliza. Everybody was so nice to me and the teacher is awesome! I even got to tell Eliza about God and the Bible. And I hope its okay but I invited her to come over tomorrow after school she says she wants to know more.”

“That’s wonderful Chloe!! I don’t see why it would be a problem; we’ll make sure with your mom over supper. I am so proud of you, already witnessing to someone on your first day at your new school!”

“Oh she isn’t just someone; she is a dear new friend! She is so nice, and so talkative and upbeat!” Chloe said, skipping as they made their way toward the house.

“Sounds like someone else I know…!!” said Dad laughing as he opened the front door of their house.

The next day at school, Eliza and Chloe met by the swings and were both really excited because their parents had said yes! The day drug by a bit for girls because they couldn’t wait until school was over.

At the end of the day Eliza took the school bus with Chloe and they started talking about the Bible some more as they walked toward Chloe’s house from the bus stop.

“So…quiz questions: 3 reasons to read the Bible!”, said Eliza with a mischievous look on her face.

Chloe smiled and said:” 1. To know God better.

                                    2. To understand God’s plan for humanity.

                                    3. To know what to do and how to behave.

“Can you give me examples of that?” said Eliza, genuinely interested.

“ Of course, well first off there are the 10 commandments. God told his people what they shouldn’t do to please Him. So I try to live by those principles every day. Second, I get to find out how much God loves me. He sent His only Son to die on the cross to save me from my sins. If I didn’t read the Bible, I wouldn’t know about that. So I know that if I do bad things , you know, sin in some way, He has forgiven me. Third, I can read all different accounts of people’s lives, what they did in their lifetime, what happen to them. Who God rewarded for acting a certain way, who he punished. I can apply that to my life too.” Chloe could get very excited talking about her beliefs.

“Wow, I never heard anyone talk about the Bible this way…” Eliza said with wonder in her voice.

“You know the way I look at it, the Bible is like a letter that God wrote just for me , for anyone who wants to know Him, really.”  Chloe looked straight at Eliza as they were reaching the front door to her house.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I want to get to know you more, we need to talk to each other. If we didn’t talk to each other we wouldn’t be very good friends, would we?”

“No, no we wouldn’t.”

“It’s the same thing with God, if we want to get to know Him better, draw closer to Him, we need to talk to him; by prayer and by reading the Bible, his letter to us.”

“I think I understand what you are saying…”

Chloe opened the front door and the house smelled wonderful. Mom had made chocolate chip cookies as an after school snack. The girls hurried to the sink to wash up and joined Chloe’s mom and dad at the table.

Chloe’s mom and dad made Eliza feel very welcomed, they spent the rest of the afternoon and all through supper talking about the different stories of the Bible and the lessons you can learn from them; Jonah running away from God, Daniel being thrown in the lion’s den, Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon. Then they talked about the most important one of all, Jesus coming to earth to die on the cross for us. Eliza was so interested that she was sad when the evening was over and her mom came to pick her up.

Chloe invited her to come to her church on Sunday and Eliza said she would make sure to ask her mom.

Before leaving Chloe handed Eliza a present she had made for her. A beautiful vase she has done decoupage on with a verse written on the front. : “Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.”

Eliza eyes got teary. “I can’t believe you made this for me!! It’s beautiful! What does the verse mean?”

“It means that we can hide the word of God in our hearts to make sure we live the way He wants us to, because we love Him.” Chloe said reaching to hug her friend goodbye.

“I like that!” said Eliza. “I am so glad I met you Chloe.”

“Me too, Eliza! I’ll see you tomorrow at school!”

“Maybe we can talk more about the Bible and God then…”

“Of course! He is my favorite subject of conversation!” Chloe closed the door after waving her friend off. 

She bowed her head and said a quiet prayer of thanks to God. Thanking Him for sending him a wonderful new friend and thanking Him for his letter to her and praying that she never take it for granted.

The End