Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jensen Holt McNair.

My son Jude has a stuffed animal bunny and a blue sleep sack that he takes with him everywhere.

A few weeks back, we were almost late arriving to a

Bible study that I was teaching because Jude desperately needed us to go back home to get his blue

sleep sack and bunny. They go everywhere. They are well worn. They've been through the wash an

unreasonable number of times.

But he loves them all the same, even more for it.

For someone who's three, there really isn't anything wrong with this kind of behavior.

They make him feel safe, make him feel comfortable.

Now, we tend to associate this kind of behavior with toddlers and superstitious cultures.

We all, quote-unquote, know that totems and talismans and magic objects aren't real.

But in my experience, the average adult is a bit more complex than that.

There's a mug that you can't part with.

A picture you can't let go of.

An old shirt you'll hold onto forever. A coin that has some value, and of course, no one says these things have totemic power. Instead, we say they

have sentimental value. In other words, they're somehow invested with emotional significance,

and that metaphysical investment makes them more valuable than they ought to be.

And there's also the inverse. Something about the object makes us feel good or safe or nostalgic or

seen. No one admits this or talks like this because he starts to sound crazy. We often don't

even slow down enough to let ourselves notice the sensation, but it's true. I remember my first

pocket-sized Bible. I got it when I was in college and carried it with me everywhere. It was the

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