“Will you let me be your servant; let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.” (From The Servant Song, by Richard Gillard)

This is the primary theme of Seven is a Perfect Number. After her recovery from a broken hip, Mrs. Henry refuses to try to get out of her wheelchair and walk. It is Beth Anne, a young girl with Down syndrome, who coaxes her out of the chair and helps her learn to walk with the aid of a walker. When Beth Anne breaks her leg, Mrs. Henry shows up with the same walker and insists that Beth Anne get out of her wheelchair and walk.

Sometimes in life, we are the servants and sometimes we are the served. While both roles can be challenging, from my own personal experience, receiving the service is harder. On the night before he died, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Peter’s first response to this is much like our response when someone wants to do something for us. “I can’t let you do that.” or “No thanks, I can do it myself.” It is much easier to be on the giving end of service than on the receiving end. To receive help from others is to put ourselves in a vulnerable position—one of dependence. And yet that is what Jesus expects us to do. He wants us to depend on him for everything. How hard is it for us to do that when we can’t bring ourselves to depend on others? And yet it is through others that we receive God’s grace.

God does not always call the best among us for the job at hand. Melissa struggles with this concept in my book. When Beth Anne is recognized as a hero for rescuing a little girl who fell in the pond, Melissa is upset that she wasn’t there. After all, Melissa is the best swimmer. She could have performed the rescue easily, and yet it is Beth Anne who gets the praise and reward. Later, when the Handy Helpers are cleaning Mrs. Henry’s house and Beth Anne just sits on the sofa looking at photo albums with Mrs. Henry, Melissa calls her lazy. Melissa’s grandmother uses the story of Martha and Mary from the Bible to help Melissa understand that there are many ways to serve. As her grandmother tells her, “Maybe Mrs. Henry needed someone to talk to more than she needed a clean house.”

In my personal life I have many people who are dependent on me. I am cast in the servant role daily. Yet it is difficult for me to ask for help or accept it when it is offered. Even small requests such as asking my Facebook friends for prayers are often not made by me because I’m too busy trying to hold it all together by myself. I should take a lesson from my own writing. I often wonder why I was called on to write these books when there are so many better writers who are already well known. And yet this is the task I was given. Much as I would be happy at times to relinquish it, I am driven to press on. And so I ask you who are reading this to help me share my message. If these books are intended to reach a child somewhere who desperately needs to hear of God’s infinite love, it is only through you that it will happen.