In the Margins

What is your favorite place in the Bible?

Is it a verse? A passage? A chapter? A book? Or maybe an entire section of Scripture?

Some are naturally drawn to John 3:16. I love that verse.
Others are drawn to the nativity, or the resurrection of Christ.
For some, it’s the letters; for others, the Gospels.
Maybe it’s the creation account—or the consummation in Revelation.
Then there’s the history, the law, the poetry, and the prophets.

I’ve grown to love all of these. I could make an argument for why each might be my favorite.

Yet none of them are.

A Season Saturated in Scripture

For most of 2023 and 2024, God placed me in a season with an abundance of time. Out of boredom at first, I began reading—10 to 14 hours a day.

I’ve always loved reading, but never like this. I assembled a sizable collection of Christian books and read dozens—many of them multiple times. Yet none of them held me the way Scripture did.

My absolute go-to book was the Bible.

From early morning until bedtime, I was drawn to God’s Word. I spent the vast majority of my days there.

I’ve been a student of Scripture for 45 years. This wasn’t new territory. But during this season, I read the Bible straight through—Genesis to Revelation.

It began innocently enough. My first Bible arrived—a Gideons Bible. Naturally, I went to Genesis. I’ve spent more time there over the last 30 years than anywhere else. But this time, when I reached the end of Genesis, I just kept going.

Exodus.
Leviticus.
Numbers.
Deuteronomy.
The histories.
The prophets.
The letters.

Until I finished Revelation.

I was pleased with myself. I’d read the Bible cover to cover in less than a month.

Then a problem emerged.

I still had time.

So I went back to Genesis.

Reading the Word Aloud

Before I reached Exodus, I made a new friend—legally blind, hungry for God, and unfamiliar with Scripture. He had attended church a few times, but had never read the Bible.

So I started again at the beginning—this time reading out loud.

For nearly 14 hours a day, I read Genesis, then Exodus, then on. I paused to answer questions. To explain. To marvel together.

We made it to Ruth before it was time for him to move on.

I was heartbroken to see him leave.

During that time, he came to faith in Christ. We prayed together every night. We talked endlessly about God, Scripture, and life.

I learned firsthand the power of hearing God’s Word spoken.

What a gift those days were.

Fourteen Times Through the Bible

After he left, I kept going.

Ruth to Revelation.
Then back to Genesis again.

By the end of 22 months, I had read the Bible cover to cover 14 times.

I now own multiple Bibles I’ve read all the way through:

• NIV
• NASB
• NLT
• RSV
• NKJV

Several are study Bibles. I loved the notes, charts, maps, and articles. But more than anything, I loved how it all fits together.

God taught me.
Corrected me.
Stretched me.
Changed me.

And with every reading, He got bigger.

Seeing the Story as One

One of the greatest gifts of staying saturated in Scripture was seeing how the whole story unfolds.

How Genesis illuminates Paul’s letters.
How the prophets only make sense in light of Israel’s history.
How nothing stands alone.

No moment—and no person—appears by accident.

Take Levi, the tax collector.

“After these things, He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.”
—Luke 5:27–28

Levi wasn’t scenery.

He had parents.
A past.
Friends.
Enemies.
Experiences—some beautiful, some painful.

Every one of those moments conspired to place him at that desk, on that day, when Jesus walked by.

God orchestrated it all.

The same is true of Abraham. Moses. David. Isaiah. John. Zacchaeus.
(Just imagine the lengths God went to protect that sycamore tree.)

God knows.
God plans.
And His plan was complete before anything began.

My Favorite Place in the Bible

Now, take your Bible.

Open it to Genesis 1:1.

Look just to the left of that first word.

That margin.

That is my favorite place in the Bible.

Before creation.
Before light.
Before words.

God knew.

Everything from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21—and beyond—was already fully known.

“Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book
before one of them came to be.”
—Psalm 139:16

“The Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
—Revelation 13:8

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world.”
—Ephesians 1:4

“He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
—1 Peter 1:20

In that tiny margin before Genesis 1:1, all of history—past, present, and future—already existed in the mind of God.

And then He began to paint.

Living in the Knowing of God

I often return to that margin.

I lie in bed at night and meditate on that instant before the beginning. And in that instant—He was already here. With me. With you. With this very moment.

This moment has never been outside His knowing or His care.

We are not puppets. We make real choices.
But every moment of our lives has always been known by Him—and now belongs to Him.

The God who stands before the beginning also stands with us here.

“I AM Who I AM.”
—Exodus 3:14