This week, I had the privilege of a lifetime. I was asked to read from George Washington’s Bible.
I didn’t touch it. It’s almost 300 years old and because it was used well by its original owners, it is in very delicate condition. I read it in a climatically controlled room at the Franklin Library at Mount Vernon with the Chief Librarian and Archivist, Mark Santangelo present.
My grandparents were Polish Jews who left Lublin, Poland after the first World War. Afterwards, in 1938, Hitler marched into Poland and murdered ninety-five percent of the remaining Jewish population, three million people.
The reality is that if America did not exist, my grandparents probably would not have made it through WWII and therefore, I and all my family would not exist. This deeply impacts me emotionally. I feel strongly that I owe a great debt to this great country.
It was with this in the back of my mind that I approached the reading of the Washington Bible. For me, George Washington is the greatest representation of the founding of this country. His leadership in the Revolutionary War and as our first president serves as a beacon of light in our founding history.
The section of the Bible that Mark had opened for me was the center leaf. The family had added a blank page to the middle of this family Bible handed down to Washington from his mother, Mary Ball Washington, to record the births of the Washington children. On the top of the righthand page was written in beautiful early 1800’s penmanship the birth record of George Washington.
As I haltingly read his recorded birth (The ink has faded significantly over the last two hundred and fifty years) I felt like I was leaning over the shoulder of George Washington as he was sitting at his desk reading it at Mount Vernon.
“George Washington, son to Augustine & Mary, his wife, was born about 10 in the morning on February 11, 1731”
Wow! What an experience. I felt like I had touched history and the great person who had effected mine.
I am reminded of a verse, “Therefore, since we so great a cloud of witnesses that surround us’ (Hebrews 12.1). This verse was written right after the recording of the great people of faith in Old Testament history in Hebrews 11; King David, Moses, Abraham and many others. When I read of their trust of God and the great exploits that they did in his name, I am inspired to follow in their footsteps.
In one sense, I touched George Washington last week and it was thrilling. But every day I have the opportunity to reach back and read the words and actions of the “Founding Fathers”’ of the Bible. May I be as thrilled.