Tag Archives: God’s grace

Blog

The night God erased my manuscript

Leave a comment

miracle mileI had been working hard on the second Handy Helpers book all day–first making some important revisions and then focusing on chapter ten. After dinner, I returned to work on it again, eager to finish the chapter. With chapter ten not quite completed, I was forced to quit as my mind was shutting down. Suddenly, the computer screen went blank. I stared at the white screen for a few seconds before deciding that I must have hit a function key and opened a new file. When I clicked the x to close the file, I was asked, as usual, if I wanted to save the changes. Just as I clicked “yes,” I realized I had not opened a new file, but I had actually deleted everything–thirty thousand words gone in an instant!

My initial shock was eased a little as I remembered that every night at eleven o’clock my writing was automatically backed up on a thumb drive. I hadn’t lost everything–only my work from that day. Still feeling the loss and wondering if I would be able to recall all that I had written that day, I went to bed.

The next day I was able to retrieve my backed up work and  easily return to the parts of my manuscript where I made changes. With all the changes completed, I turned my attention to the part of chapter ten I had been working on but my mind went completely blank. Try as I might, I could not remember any of the words I had written. As I struggled to think of something to write, it seemed as if a wall had gone up, blocking my thoughts. Finally, in frustration, I gave up.

Later that night, I was reading my homework for an apologetics class I was taking at church. It was a long reading assignment and not terribly interesting, and I was struggling to stay awake. Determined that I was going to finish, I pushed on through the sleepiness. At last, I completed the assigned reading, but for some unknown reason, I continued to read on. My eyes came to rest on a scripture passage–Ephesians 2:8–“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is a gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

It was at that moment I recognized God’s hand on my writing. I had been working on a part of the book where Beth Anne asks her grandmother to tell her what grace is. Apparently, I hadn’t done an adequate job the first time. Now I had a second chance to get it right. Focusing on the scripture I had been given, I wrote the following:

“There’s one part I don’t understand,” Beth Anne said seriously. “Who is Grace?”

“Grace isn’t a person, honey,” Doris explained. “Grace is . . . grace is . . . well, grace is a gift from God.”

“A gift from God? You mean like a present?”

“Yes, kind of like a present, but the very best present you could ever imagine.”

“If I’m really good, do you think God will give me a present?”

“God doesn’t give us his gifts of grace because we’re good. No one could ever be good enough to earn God’s grace.”

“I don’t understand.” Beth Anne shook her head.

“Let me see if I can explain it.” Doris hesitated for a moment, thinking. “You are holding a gift for your mother, right? Why are you giving her a gift?”

“Because it’s Mother’s Day and I love my mother.”

“Exactly.” Doris let out a sigh. “We give each other gifts to show how much we love each other. But no matter how much love we have, we can never equal the love God has for us. That’s why we can never earn his gifts of grace. He gives us those gifts out of love.”

I’ll never know what words I had written originally. Those words are gone forever–erased by the hand of God. But in their place are words he wanted me to write. I’ll be forever grateful for his gift of grace.

 

Blog

Serve one another through love.

2 Comments

Scan_20140727

“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.