To a writer, everything is about story. The characters she or he creates live out their stories through the writer’s imagination.
But our real lives are stories too.
Sometimes we think that it’s all up to us. That we write our own stories, good or bad. But God is the Author of everything, and He has a plot with a purpose that we don’t always understand until the end of the book.
I recently reviewed a book for a wonderful author, Rachel Starr Thomson. I haven’t been so touched by a non-fiction book in—well, forever. I wept from the first page. I guess it’s the place I’m at in life. I want to walk with Jesus. I want to know Him like I never have. I want my story to have a great plotline and a good ending.
Rachel is a true storyteller.
In her non-fiction book, The Way of Restoration, she draws a parallel between Jesus and Moses. Moses was an Old Testament picture of the New Testament Messiah. But when Moses was living out his story he didn’t know that.
God asked Moses to be a deliverer of his people, just as God would later send Jesus to be a deliverer of all people.
Moses didn’t want to be a deliverer. He wanted to tend his father-in-law’s sheep.
He resisted his calling, like many of us have. He probably lived much of his life feeling like a failure. But God wrote his story! And even though Moses didn’t understand what it all meant, I believe he knew that, in spite of his failures, his life meant something. God was directing the play.
Can we trust the writer of our story?
Can we believe that our mundane lives mean something?
That our blundering has been for a purpose? That even our sins have been for a purpose?
Can we trust God that much?
I want to. I want to believe that, through all my ups and downs, God was working out something that would be good in the end. That lives will have been affected because I lived.
In her book, Rachel says, “We can’t know what every twist of the plot means as we’re living it. All we can do is trust the Storyteller, who knows where all this is going and has proven that He knows how to direct the story well.”
We can trust the Storyteller!
My recently-released novel, The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah follows the biblical account of a woman who suffered every sort of struggle in her life. Her father forced her to pretend she was her sister and have intercourse with her sister’s betrothed, Jacob, on his wedding night. Her relationship with her sister was broken, and Jacob told her he would provide for her and do his husbandly duty toward her, but she would never have his love. She suffered great pain through the tragedy that befell her only daughter and the grievous sins of her sons.
But there’s a beautiful scripture that I find absolutely amazing.
Genesis 29:31 When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved—
God was watching Leah. Can you picture it? The God of the Universe leaning over the portals of heaven to get a better view of an unloved woman. He SAW Leah’s predicament, and He wrote a beautiful ending to her story.
You can order The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah now!
Here’s the book description. I hope you enjoy it!
Two sisters married to the same man. A man who loves only one.
Leah didn’t want a marriage without love. A strong and capable woman, she had determined to live a life of service as a midwife, bringing other women’s children into the world, allowing her father to breach tradition and betroth her beautiful younger sister first. But that was not to be.
Forced by her father to pose as her sister, Leah goes to Jacob’s wedding bed. When Jacob awakens to find Leah instead of the beautiful Rachel, he tells Leah that he will provide for her and do what a husband must, but she will never have his love.
Rejected by her husband and her relationship with her beloved sister broken, will Leah be able to keep her faith in the God of Abraham through the tragedies to come? Will Jacob see Leah for the woman she truly is? Will these two wives of the patriarch mend their relationship before it’s too late?
Enjoy this beautiful story of a woman overlooked by history but not by God. In Genesis 29:31 the scripture says, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved—” God was watching over Leah. And He’s watching over you.
Remember you can order The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah now! Just click on the link and it will take you directly to Amazon. No email required.
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