In the begining...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

 

In the beginning…

As a child of Christ I know what those words mean. As a Christian I know where they came from. If I hear them spoken in town or from someone that’s passing through my life I automatically think of…

Genesis.

Creation.

God.

All of life on earth, even earth itself, started…In the beginning. Before there was anything. Our Lord took nothing and formed this intricate planet and all of the heavens that surround it. Because it was His will there was Earth and life. Something so complicated we can’t even fathom how to make one tiny speck of it and He made it from nothing.

Amazing.

Miraculous.

Wonderful.

Humbling.

When I look at a tree, something so normal, so everyday ordinary that it barely gets noticed, I have to stop and marvel at the power of the hand that formed it. What would it take to create something even a speck as intricate as a tree?

As an author I start with nothing. A blank white slate on my computer screen. A white page that holds nothing when I start and days, weeks, or months later it holds the story of imaginary people.  But I do not start with…In the beginning. I start with…Once upon a time. Only I never use those four little words. I create a made up world, with made up people that make others say “That was good. Can I read more?”

And yet nothing I will ever write will ever come close to the miracles that were done…In the beginning.

Do we as authors ever stop to think about the power we hold in our fingertips? Do we consider the impact we may have on another’s life? Some of my most favorite books of all time were the ones that managed to make me laugh and cry all in the same book?

Why?

Because they touched my human emotions. In those books, in the stories of those made up people that someone else wrote I was touched on an emotional level. I laughed. I cried. I bonded with those characters. I was able to ‘see’ their lives, to feel their feelings. To experience their happiness, suffer their pain.

I have read books that brought out my own hurts, read some that healed wounds. The power that a book holds over us goes far beyond the handful of hours we spend reading it. And the power our stories hold over others goes just as far.

If a story I write touches just one person’s life it has the potential to be life changing for them. That is a huge responsibility. I do not plan my stories. I just sit down and start writing with a single thought, character, place, event, opening line, or whatever it is that gets me started on a particular manuscript. The stories just flow. They have a life of their own and I write them because they are there and need to be put into words.

But…

Words are powerful.

They have the potential to touch people, to change lives, to heal…

To harm.

It’s possible that something I write could bring someone to Christ. Or it could make them stumble. That is a huge responsibility. One I never considered when I started my writing journey. It didn’t occur to me that I might one day have that kind of influence on someone.

Now that it has…Wow! What a huge thing to consider when I sit before my computer typing words as fast as my mind can form them and giving life to people and places that only I can ever see. Books are great. I own hundreds of them. Everything from children’s picture books to multiple copies of the Bible.

But as a writer do I remember to weigh my words carefully as I give my stories life? That is a question I will be pondering further with every manuscript I write.

How have books influenced your life? Was there a particular book that touched you deeply? Why? What made that book so special for you that it impacted your life?