God Is Not a Respecter of Story Size
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. (Acts 10:34-35 Capitals Hs added by me.)
Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:5)
I am behind on several deadlines, so this will be just a short treatment of a subject deserving of more.
I have been thinking about the phenomenon of a beloved story being about pirates or wizards or sorceresses, etc. Surely, these silly subjects must produce works that are less important than those about weightier matters.
But it came to me recently that this just is not true.
Just as God is not a “respecter of persons” (which means not that He doesn’t respect us but that He does not prefer one kind or rank of human beings to another) He is not a “respecter” of story subjects, either.
Every Act of God, every miracle, is absolute. It partakes of God, and God is all-in-all. (A Course In Miracles, a book I loved when I was young, summed it up in its very first line: There is no order of difficulty in miracles. Meaning that, to God, it is just as easy to do one miracle as it is to do another. It is only to us that one thing seems harder, less possible. When God acts, His action is absolute and cuts through our mortal existence like a knife through soft butter.)
To put this in concrete terms: parting the Red Sea to save the Israelites; healing one man’s withered hand is also a miracle.
One saves an entire peoples. The other helps one solitary man.
Yet both partake of God’s nature.
In our daily lives, we can pray about the wars in the world or about our concerns for our loved ones, pets, or gardens.
When God answers, the joy and peace of His miracle is just as astonishing to us, whether it is a big or small matter that is healed.
In both cases, something impossible becomes possible.
I think the same thing is true of stories. When we write, we can invite God to come into our writing, into our story, and inform the plot and the actions of the characters.
Once He enters in, it does not matter if the story was a rousing epic about a great and important battle or a gentle story about unrequited love in a small seaside town. God is there. Beauty is there. Courage is there. Wonder is there.
Thus it is that while we expect depths and thought-provoking insight in books about weighty topics, stories of love or magic or even a boy who wants to be King of the Pirates can have the power to transform our lives.
So what kind of story can we find God in?
Any kind He is invited to enter.
Because wherever we find God, even one small aspect of God’s nature, such as kindness, joy, bravery, justice—He is there.
Thank you.
Boy did I need this one. Thank you!