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Were it not for the pages of the Bible, I would not have been able to write any of my Christian books. From the very beginning of my journey as a Christian author, God’s word has guided and inspired me to write the kind of fiction that, hopefully, is honouring to Him. In one of my social posts this month, I spoke about the still-small-voice of conscience. In a similar way, I believe the regular reading of the Bible is filling my brain with wholesome thoughts and life-giving messages that I attempt to capture in my writing.
I would like to share with you a few examples of how biblical stories and messages have both directly and indirectly influenced the kind of stories I write.
For instance, the guidance which led to writing my story for young children, The Rainbow Game, came from the story of the flood: Noah’s obedience to God in building the arc, and God’s covenant with Noah, confirmed with the sign of the rainbow in the sky that He would never again destroy the whole world with the waters of a flood. In my story, Clara, who heard all about Noah, the flood, and the arc, in Sunday school, is desperate to see a rainbow. So she is very excited when it rains one day and a beautiful rainbow appears in the sky. She rushes over to her friend’s house where she learns even more about the significance of the rainbow and about God’s love for the world.
Similarly, my picture book for slightly older children, Modern Manna, wouldn’t have been written had it not been for God’s miraculous provision of manna in the desert for the Israelites, and also Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand with the loaves and fish. What a joy it was to use these amazing stories as the foundation for my creation of a fictional story. As I have shared elsewhere, Modern Manna was also based on a real-life story, where God’s people responded to the needs of people in KZN who were experiencing food shortages by buying what amounted to be huge truckloads of food and essentials which were then transported from Cape Town to Durban. How satisfying it must have been for the people who were organising the food distribution which gave much-needed relief to hungry families.
While many of my stories and novels have a direct link with the Bible, having been inspired by actual events which took place, for example my adult novel, Headlines in Heaven and the two books I often say that all ages can enjoy, namely Mighty Master Plan and Significant Signposts and One Day and Then and Now, other stories have been indirectly influenced by themes and ideas from the Bible.
There are hints in two of the stories in Shine, which is my anthology for younger teens - hints about using your talents for God’s glory, and the reason why Christians don’t need to fear death.
In the first story, ‘Glitter Words Without Gift Wrap’, the teacher at Stella’s school encourages her class to think of good ideas for gifts for a very important guest speaker who is coming to visit the school.
Stella is intimidated by all the elaborate and expensive gifts her peers come up with, for example, a gold watch, a portrait of the VIP, and even a whole album of songs composed in his honour. All these gifts, though, would basically be the parents’ contributions. So when Stella shyly says she is going to compose a story poem, she is laughed at and scorned by her peers. I won’t tell the whole story; I just want to highlight that the biblical theme of humility verses pride, was the foundation of this story.
In the second story, ‘Time to Wake Up’, Jess is concerned about her granny, who is in a deep sleep and seems to not be waking up – she actually thinks she is dead. She is mightily relieved when her granny does in fact, wake up, but not before her mum has given her a lesson about dying and the after-life.
Then in the anthology, Tapestries, the story, ‘Vuyo’s Love Lesson’ indirectly speaks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. But it is actually a story about the camp guide, who risks his life to save Vuyo from drowning, that highlights Jesus’ work on the cross to save all mankind from death.
My fiction is full of these subliminal messages from the Bible as ordinary people go about living their daily lives.
Without the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, my fiction would not be nearly as useful as it is in pointing people of all ages to what is truely of great value in this world.