Daily Word of Grace # 123 (September 3, 2020)
My favorite science fiction writer is the prolific Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The title of his 1953 dystopian classic, Fahrenheit 451 refers to the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns. The protagonist is Guy Montag, a “fireman” whose job is to burn books, which have been outlawed. His helmet bears “451” to signify his role. The novel is a warning about the danger of jettisoning books, and is a relevant now as ever as many have swapped reading books with scanning news feeds and social media. Montag eventually quits his “fireman” job and joins a group of refugee intellectuals, each of whom have memorized books in an effort to keep the life-giving truths of books from becoming extinct. Montag had memorized parts of the Bible, and at the end of Fahrenheit 451 he is walking silently with these new friends and recalls this passage from Revelation: “And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2, KJV). The Bible is indeed the inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16) that points us to salvation through Jesus Christ whose death on the cross, the “tree of life”, remains the proof of God’s love for us (Romans 5:8).
Love and Prayers,
Dave