March Kin-Tales

Dear friends,

This week I had the joy of viewing a Heritage Copy of the Saint John's Bible. At Saint John's Abbey in Minneapolis, a team of calligraphers worked from 1998 to 2011 to create a hand-written, hand-illuminated Bible. It is simply stunning. The care, the art, the attention to detail, and the creativity are unparalleled. Someday I hope to see the original. Meanwhile, I will continue to flip through the digital version found on the website to be inspired by the Word of God, written and illuminated by human hands.

The opening illumination of the seven days of creation.While I was awed by the art and the lettering, I was delighted to be shown several "mistakes" in the manuscript. Occasionally the calligrapher would miss a line and have to include it below. But they made the mistakes beautiful - by illustrating the mistake with a bird, bee, or lemur, with a rope that connected the missing line to where it should have been. As we flipped the pages, I was excited to find the "mistakes" and to made aware that actual people made this edition of the Bible. The mistakes added to the beauty and humanity of the Bible.

One of the "mistakes" in the Saint John's Bible.

Sometimes we can get down on ourselves for our imperfections or mistakes, but this beautiful Bible is a reminder that there is no such thing as perfect and that our foibles might just be what actually makes us human and delightful. As I often say in the Assurance of Grace in a worship service - All of us are loved, needed and necessary - just as God made us.

Peace, Theresa