encouragement.

Sophie turned to look at me with her typical shy smile, then suddenly exploded with excitement as she started telling me the creation story in impressive detail.

She spoke for a couple of minutes straight as she eagerly told me about what she had learned because she opened her Bible. She phrased almost every sentence as a question starting with "Did you know that…" as if it were a great discovery she could not help but tell people about.

It was the perfect combination of profound and adorable. I came up with dreams of what it would be like to give someone their first Bible only to realize how much I had missed the point. Sophie did not miss anything though. They were kids. They did not need a fancyceremony. They needed Bibles.

We happened to be teaching on the creation story that day in Bible study, but I think I learned more from Sophie then she learned from me. As someone who had heard the stories many times, I was so inspired to hear her excitement as she read the Bible for the first time. As I began the lesson, I had a new sense of excitement for an old story. Her child-like faith and awe were a beautiful lesson to how incredible God is and how we should always experience the Bible with nothing less than childlike excitement.

Laura Ellis, a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, served as a Go Now missionary at Mission Arlington in Arlington, Texas.