The 40-Day Feast: Feast on God's WordSample

Born in Dampierre, France, on December 17, 1894, Emile Cailliet was raised in a home where the Bible was not read. His education focused on the natural world with no mention of the One who made it. As a matter of fact, young Cailliet never even saw a Bible until he was twenty-­three years old.

When Cailliet went off to war, a war started in his own heart, a battle to know and be known in a way he never had before. He later wrote, “During long night watches in the foxholes [in WWI] I had in a strange way been longing—I must say it, however queer it may sound—­for a book that would understand me. But I knew of no such book.”1 Though he was well-­read, he had never read anything that helped him understand life or feel understood in his life.

As he read from the great authors of literature and philosophy, Emile Cailliet jotted down quotes in a leather-­bound journal. He copied whole passages that attempted to ask the same questions he himself had. Once his book of quotes was completed, he sat down beneath a tree to read it through. Unfortunately Emile experienced even deeper despair for he still lacked what he longed for. He didn’t understand and certainly did not feel understood by this book, so he tucked it down deep in his pocket.

At that very moment, Emile’s wife came to him with a gift. Knowing nothing of her husband’s quest or the book he had compiled, she placed a Bible in his hands and shared a story that surprised them both. When she came upon a little Huguenot chapel during a walk, she found herself walking in and asking for a Bible. She was shocked by the request that came from her mouth, knowing that her husband looked down on the Christian faith. But when Emile reached for it, he displayed no arrogance, only eagerness. He later wrote, "I opened it and “chanced” upon the Beatitudes [Matthew 5]! I read, and read. . . . I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me: This was the Book that would understand me!"

The Bible is the only book that understands you so intimately that your whole life will begin to make sense through its lens. Before you ever crack the cover and read one word, the One who is the Word is reading you. He knows you and understands you, for He made you.

If you have struggled to comprehend the Bible, let the fact that God knows you propel you into a life of knowing Him. He knows your hopes and dreams as well as your abilities and inabilities. He never takes His eyes off you. Even when you feel lost and alone in the darkest night, in the trenches of your own soul’s war, even then He is with you, for the darkness is as light to Him (Ps. 139:12). Such knowledge is too wonderful for us to comprehend.

Oh, to be loved like that. Oh, to be known. Oh, to be understood. Therefore, because He loves you, love Him back. Because He knows you, know Him. Because He understands you, understand Him. God reads you like an open book, so open up His book and read Him back!

Lord, Your love for me is more than I can comprehend. Help me to remember that the next time I am tempted to stop reading my Bible because I don’t understand it. Because You know me so intimately, I want to know You back. Reveal Yourself to me. In Jesus’s name, Amen.