My friend is a bookbinder. We lived across our village from Georgio and his family. I met him at our Fratelli (that means brethren) Church; but, he knew everyone and I would have met him eventually, even if he didn’t show up at our men’s Bible study. Georgio is truly one-of-a-kind.

The first time he invited me into his basement shop, I was spellbound by the smells, the multicolored and textured leathers, the different stages each project had reached at his hand, and the finished product. A book easily discarded or shoved away from use or view, was now both useful and a work of art.

I visited him in his basement shop on the rocky ledge overhang of the Angrogna River in our village when I could. But not often enough. Because if I spent time with him, I could have learned to bind books. That’s how you become a bookbinder. Spend time with a bookbinder.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus called disciples to join him on a mountainside; and he called them to “be with him.” Read Mark 3:13-19 and, as you read each verse, think through the who, what, when, where, and how of this passage. Consider how important it is that they were “with him.” They spent time with Jesus and he invested his life in them.

How important is your choice of people to hang out with, or for that matter, who’s art, writing, movies, music, and lyrics you will “be with?”

And for the Jesus-followers, how valuable is your time invested in one other person’s life. Time spent praying, encouraging, studying, being real and honest – in one person’s life at a time. Just being with him or with her. That is the call of the disciple-maker.

Each person is valuable and, though we get beat up and scarred, and our days (read: “pages”) don’t always hold together well, people are worth the investment. We disciple when we work with one person and bring them back to life, with a purpose, and for the beauty of how God has made that person. The work of art can then reflect and give applause to the Creator. That’s the goal of discipleship.

I might be a bookbinder right now if, in my friendship with Georgio, I was “with him” more and with a goal to learn and grow into a bookbinder. And I would have enjoyed a deeper friendship with a great guy who, last time I visited, has become quite the Christ-follower. He found out more about Jesus and what happens with we are “with him.”