The Story of Your Life

I've been writing a book for months now. If you were to ask me what I do in my free time, I'd probably answer by telling you all about this book. My life now includes all sorts of nonsense involving this book; I drew out maps for it, wrote out pages of character development stuff, and spent hours and hours scrutinizing my book of baby names to figure out the perfect names for each of my characters. Yeah, I'm a geek- it's true. But as an author, that's what I do with my free time and I absolutely love it. My characters, my plot line, my settings, and everything else that are involved in creating my book mean quite a lot to me.
Did you know that God is an author too? If you don't believe me, read Hebrews 12:2, 
"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."(NASB)

But, what does God write about? YOU, of course! He is putting together the most magnificent story ever told right now, and you and I are some of the characters in it. Here are a few of the elements of His beautiful, spectacular story.

1. Setting- In a story, the setting is very important for making the mood for the entire tale. Look at the beauty around you. The blue sky. The green grass. The millions of different animals that live here on earth. You do realize that God invented all of this, right? Seriously, that's AMAZING. It sure creates a mood of awe when we realize that there is someone so much greater than ourselves out there. I think that's what God was intending to do. The Psalmist wrote about this too, 
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Psalm 19:1

2. Characters- The characters are the heartbeat of a good story. Each one is developed uniquely and three-dimentionally if it's a good book. God develops us in this way too. He gives us each a special design, a unique personality, and a purpose to fulfill. So in other words, you matter. I think back to how much I meticulously design each of my little fictional characters. If I can spend that much time thinking through fiction, how much more does God think about you? The Psalmist said a great thing about this too:

"How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them;  they outnumber the grains of sand!" 

Psalm 139:17-18 (NLT)

¹⁸ 

Another thing about characters: I went to listen to a talk by an author who has published five fictional books and she said something very interesting: every character in a book has a piece of the author inside of it. I know this through personal experience since I tried to measure all of my characters against the four temperaments test (look back on past blogs if you don't know what this is) and almost every single one of them had quite a bit of melancholy in their personalities. Well, we're created in the "image of God", so this is absolutely true about each of us as well. We, as the characters, reflect the Author; all of us have the thumbprint of God on our hearts. That sure changes a lot about how we think of ourselves.

3. Plot

In a good book, there is always a conflict in the plot line. There is most definitely a big-picture conflict going on in our big story: the fight between good and evil, between heaven and hell, between Jesus and Satan. 

This sounds cliche, yes. So, what about the smaller conflicts that happen in the story, the battles in the great war? In a book, every skirmish is written in for some type of purpose, whether it be to bring the characters closer to victory, to develop their character, to put the right two characters together in the right place to develop a vital relationship or friendship, or to prepare the characters for a bigger conflict coming ahead. The author has to be very skillful in putting together the puzzle pieces of situations in just the right way to make the story happen correctly. It is the same way in our lives. Every conflict in our lives has been ordained by God for a specific purpose. Paul talks about this in Romans:

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28 (NLT)

4. Ending

I hate books with bad endings, really, I do. I am forever grateful that the huge story that we're part of has a guaranteed happy ending. How do I know this? Well, my favorite verse in my favorite book of the Bible says so, that's why...

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11(NLT)

So, in the end, God is going to make everything beautiful. The other amazing thing about this verse is the fact that we have eternity set in our hearts. 

This reminds me of another literary term known as "foreshadowing". Foreshadowing is when the author puts hints of what is to come inside the storyline. Think about it: we each have foreshadowing put right inside our own hearts! God has planted the idea of an eternal life in heaven inside all of us. One of my teachers once talked about this in one of his devotions. He talked about how we see tiny glimpses of heaven throughout our lives- tiny flashes of the wonder and majesty of God. It's spectacular that the Creator of the universe would give us this foreshadowing gift. 

So, what does all of this mean for each of us? Well, for me personally, it's a huge comfort to know that there is a loving Author who is creating a wonderful story for me. Even when I'm in the middle of a terrible day or a difficult season of my life, I know that everything in the plot line of my life is somehow contributing to the beautiful ending. That's amazing.

  "...Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed."

Psalms 139:16

There's a song that's inside of my soul
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again
I'm awake in the infinite cold
But You sing to me over and over and over again

So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands
and pray to be only Yours
I pray to be only Yours
I know now you're my only hope

Sing to me the song of the stars
Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing
and laughing again
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that You have for me over again

So I lay my head back down
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours
I pray to be only yours
I know now you're my only hope

I give You my destiny
I'm giving You all of me
I want Your symphony
Singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs I'm giving it back

~Only Hope by Switchfoot (sung by Mandy Moore too)