failed THAT Bible drill

Our family attended a Sunday service at a local church yesterday.

It was the first time we've been to church since leaving Iowa. We haven't been purposefully avoiding going to church, but our kids were contagious with chickenpox for several weeks once we returned to Washington, and we had a few weeks of needing to visit family members on Sundays. I have a lot of deeper and more complicated thoughts on the matter of going to church again, but I am just going to share something funny with you.

So. Picture this.

We get to church a few minutes late. Really, only a few, but we ended up in the front row of a group of seats. Which was fine. We enjoyed the singing time and then sat down to listen to the sermon, which was on the book of Ruth.

Guess what book I couldn't find?

I mean really, I get that people don't always flip to tiny books like the book of Ruth right away. But I have a Bachelor's degree from a Bible College. My husband just served as an associate pastor for a year. I really really love God's Word. And here I am in the front row at this new church, the speaker is preaching on Ruth, and I am seriously like... uh... where's the book of Ruth??

I completely couldn't find it.

Flipped to my table of contents. Whoops, oh yeah, that page fell out a few months back, and I haven't gotten around to putting it back in. (Because really, who needs a table of contents anyway? I have the books of the Bible memorized, why would I ever need a table of contents? Oh, except for that one time when I couldn't remember where Ruth was...)

I was sure that it was right before Job. Nope, that's Esther. Well, isn't it by Nehemiah and Ezra then?? I scoured both ends of those books. Nope, it's really not there. Well, I thought it was before Job, I'm going to check again. Nope, that's not where it is.

What in the world? Who ripped the book of Ruth out of my Bible?

Embarrassed, I think, okay, I'll just go through the books in my head. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges... and at that point I got distracted by a child that I was holding on my lap who was getting fidgety.

I kid you not, I was thumbing through my Bible looking for Ruth for probably a full two minutes. Which is not that long but it really is a LONG time to still be flipping through your Bible after everyone else is in the right spot. Uh, maybe this girl is not spending enough time in the Word lately, huh?? Or at least not spending any time in the book of Ruth??

I finally gave up, and yes I was totally blushing at this point. I handed my Bible to Keith, he found the book of Ruth for me, and we all continued on happily.

It's after Judges, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.

You might be able to remember that more easily because at the end of Judges, it says everyone does what is right in their own eyes. But then right after that comes the story of Boaz and Ruth, two godly people who do what is right in God's eyes.

Yeah, I had notated that in my Bible at some other time. In big blue letters. (Maybe I wrote it down last summer when our family camp speaker spoke on the book of Ruth for six one-hour sessions.) Apparently it stood out to me how cool it was that Ruth followed right after Judges. I guess I still think that's pretty cool.

And I'm hoping I can remember that next time.