Our story within His-story

My mind has been on books and words recently (can't you tell?).  I love just the word literature... how it rolls on the tongue when one says it... not so much when the word is but a thought... but still good.

God has placed us in a Story, His-story.  How amazing and humbling it is as a finite human to be part of the rolling thunder of His literature... His-story.

I often wonder what it is about the Age which is to come that makes us so worth it all. 

Worth his coming and death on the cross and resurrection and living as God in man's flesh for thirty-three years.

We see in a glass darkly here and unlike a book which can be held in our hands, we cannot peruse through and read the last page to see how it all ends.

We... by faith in the Author... knows it all turns out for our good and His glory... but when living the Story there are times we... wonder.

A novel written by one who has been greatly gifted in words often grips us from the beginning paragraph, takes us to places we did not expect, and leaves us knowing ourselves better than before we spent sleepy nights unable to put the book down to sleep.

Some are simply quick reads which give us mental vacations in the midst of the reality of life.  Others... the Russian novelists, Dickens, Austen... invite us into the real life aspects of other humans living on this planet in the midst of a fallen world... and we meet ourselves in their pages.

Then there are those such as... Tolkien, Lewis, L'Engle... who take us to worlds of delight and perhaps what the world would be and could be if it were not fallen... traveling through space and time, Eden on other planets, talking beavers and lions and magic formed before time was written, life amidst the stars, Hobbit houses and Kingdoms built into rock... and we meet ourselves in their pages.

I mentioned to my husband this week that it is best to realize life is never going to be Perfect on this planet.  That it should not come as any surprise when we meet challenges along the way.  The Book... the only true Book... the Book which contains within its' pages the infinite in the finite world... it tells us there will be tribulation in this world... big "T" and little "t".

This past week, I listened as a much loved one was talking over the phone, challenges in their life and decisions to be made which will change the way in which their future will look.  There are great disappointments which were not expected, choices to be made between two equally desired needs for time to be spent, knowing each choice will disappoint and perhaps anger another.

I remind them of their priorities in spite of disappointments and I hear a sigh, as the words are what they already instinctively know but do not want to hear.  As I hang up the phone, I open the Book to the 8th Chapter of Romans and read... and read... and ponder... and pray... for the one I love and myself... that our story become His story as written for each of us.

Is that part of my love for literature?  That I can be taken into another world and someone's story and within the pages... look upon their life and their choices and their decisions and their thoughts... and see it all wrapped up neatly within the covers... hopefully with a happy ending.

Certainly there is the aspect of literature which takes us to places we cannot go and we meet people we could never meet in person.  Whether animals which speak with wisdom or English maidens from centuries long ago or little old ladies who solve crimes while knitting in their parlor... books we hold in our hands add to our lives a little of the infinite in a finite world.

As for me and mine... all part of the great Story being written for the Ages... I must always remember the Author is in control regardless of the chaos of circumstances around my twenty-four hours of days.  While all I see ahead is shrouded in a fog of the unknown... He knows and He guides and He will complete what He started.

That's what faith and hope are all about.

Picture: Time For Reading; allposters.com