Today while cleaning out an old file cabinet I came across a piece of aged cardboard with a bit of my dad’s familiar script on it. It was a list of two items, both crossed off as if completed. Seeing his hand- writing sent a ripple of warmth through me, because as I saw his words, I saw him.

We can tell all kinds of things from a person’s writing. Actually, there are analysts who call themselves graphologists who say they can give details about whether or not someone was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he/she did the writing, what their mental state was at the time, and what their personality characteristics are. Some dispute this, but even detectives confess to using graphologists in their efforts to solve crimes.

But those things aren’t what I saw in my dad’s writing. Instead I saw these:

• Dad was a serious person.
• He embraced responsibility.
• He thought in legal terms.
• He wrote legibly.
• He didn’t waste words.
• He didn’t waste paper, choosing the back of a tablet for his list.

Also, since it looks like he penned a slow line under each item, I wondered if he might have been on the phone at the time, doodling a bit. Was he using his list as a prompt during the conversation?

I think about the words God has written for us to read, though we’ve never seen his actual handwriting. People have called the Bible a love letter, the word of truth, the law, the Good Book, The Holy Writ, the Scriptures, and The Word of God. We can tell an awful lot about the Main Character of the book by reading the inspired words we find there.

This is especially important because God is currently invisible, which makes “seeing” him in the pages of Scripture extremely valuable. Jesus even told us that’s how we should get to know him, by reading and studying the Bible.

One of my desires for 2015 is to get to know Jesus better. That was my goal for 2014, too, and though it did happen to a certain extent, there’s always more to discover. Actually, I don’t think we will ever, even through eternity, learn all there is to know about the Lord. Because of that, getting to know him better is probably a good goal for every year.

I’m looking forward to someday seeing the face of Jesus and also to hearing his voice. And maybe I’ll even get to study a writing sample. The only problem is, it’ll probably be in Aramaic.

”The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God.” (Hebrews 1:3)