“Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path.”
Psalm 119:105

In 2010 when I was working on a post to mark July 16, the anniversary of the day I became a Christian. I came across this beautiful image. I emailed Chris Harrison for permission to use it, which he kindly gave. He created it in collaboration with Pastor Christoph Römhild. You won’t be surprised to learn it was named one of the best science images of 2008 in National Geographic News.

It is a stunning visual overview of the Bible with the many arcs depicting the vast interweaving of cross references from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Chris explains:

“The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.”

In that brief post I wrote:

Light is such a wonderful description of the effect of the Bible on the human heart.

I know, because forty years ago tonight as I read and discussed Romans 5, I became a Christian. Through His Word, God led me out of darkness into light. No other word depicts so well the work God did through the Bible that summer evening as I sat on the grass outside a college dorm.

Through the light of His Word, I met Jesus, the Light of the World.

In 2011 I started a year-long series of posts, “Read the Bible in 2011.” I used the image to introduce the series because it’s so stunning, and because it was a visual way to emphasize the importance of having an overview of the content of God’s Word as the many arcs depict the vast interweaving of cross references from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

As I read the Bible each day I posted my thoughts and reflections on what I was reading along with a small amount of background material from various pastors and theologians. Because that year was such a hard one for me and my family, you’ll find gaps in the links. On those days my posts were simply reminders about the reading.

As I work through sorting out the formatting for posts in this new theme, I want to do some editing and fill in those gaps. I’ll be writing on other things, but my plan is to once a week point out some of those posts and let you know what I’ve been doing. I’m adding a new category, Read the Bible in 2011 Redux, to use along with the original one to let you know the posts are new.

May the Lord be with you and bless you, and may you grow in your love and knowledge of Him through reading His Word.

Visualizing the Bible® Chris Harrison. Used by permission. Click the image to enlarge. An art print of the image can be purchase at Chris’s site here.