“For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” (Zechariah 2:5).

“Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen” (Mark 16:14).

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart” (Genesis 6:5,6).

I have always loved books and libraries. As a child, I spent much time in the Houston Public Library and read many books. As an engineering student (later also as a teacher), spending my evenings at the Rice University Library was a favorite activity—then even more so in the library at the University of Minnesota where I was both an instructor and a graduate student.

“Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:18).