n amazing package arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago. It was odd, because I wasn't expecting a package of any sort.

A few months ago, I did some writing for an organization called The Remnant Trust. They are an foundation that brings rare and ancient manuscripts to schools, colleges, etc, for educational programs. They did a program at my college, which is how I learned of them.

I also suggested the program to Patrick Henry College, which has intellectually-powerful, motivated students who would read the manuscripts in their original languages.

When I opened the box, I was greeted by a letter and another package. Inside the package was a leather folder... with a page from the original print run of the 1611 King James Bible!

This particular excerpt of Isaiah 11 has been a great encouragement to me. Why?

• It reminds me of God's faithfulness through time in the preservation of Scripture. Four hundred years ago, there was a pastor somewhere, who picked up this book in wonder, for he could now for the first time read the Bible in his own language. Knowledge and wisdom were no longer the domain of the educated elite of the Church. No, people were now allowed to hear, think, and consider these words for themselves. Rejoice!
• Isaiah 10 is a big contrast from chapter 11. In 10, we see the efforts of someone who was very pleased with his own wisdom, his own knowledge, his own ability to rule. He failed; Assyria was a cruel place of injustice and evil. In 11, we learn of Someone with true wisdom, true kindness, true justice for all. In my own efforts to understand this world, it is a comfort to know that there will be a time when knowledge, wisdom, and kindness will not be so rare as they are today.
• Thus, this manuscript reminds me of God's efforts over time. It reminds me that I am just a small person. It reminds me that He has been faithful for hundreds and thousands of years, and He will continue to be faithful far beyond my imagined future. Like Habakuk, no matter what I see in my lifetime, whether it be great things, or terrible things -- whether I seem to matter or not -- I can still seek to live rightteously and still praise God for what happens. For I know the ending, and it is a happy one.