Recently, I was in between books to read and decided to read one of my own early novels,
published back in 2010, called The Homecoming. That may sound like an odd thing for an author to do, but I’ve found that if enough time has passed (and I’ve written over 2 dozen novels since), when I read one of my early books, it’s like I forget I wrote it and can enjoy the story almost like a reader reading it for the first time.
Well, at one point in the story one of the main characters, Katherine Townsend, attends church (she grew up in an orphanage and rarely went to church). The story takes place on the Homefront during WW2, and the pastor is giving a sermon to encourage his flock. The church sign said the sermon was titled: “The Book God Has Written About Us.”
First, Pastor Harman reads this text from Psalm 139:1-6. Then he skips down and reads verse 16. Here’s the passage:
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high; I cannot attain it.” (1-6)
“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
After this, Karen listens to his brief sermon. The thing is, as I read what Pastor Harman said, I completely forgot that I was the author of these words. It was as if I was sitting there in the pew with her and his words were ministering life to me. They were speaking to me, where I’m at right now, as 2023 comes to a close and we face the uncertainties of a New Year in 2024.
I thought many of you might benefit from what Pastor Harman had to say. He may be a fictional character, but his words are not. From here, I’ll paste the text from Chapter 33 of the book. We’re reading this from Katherine’s Point-of-View:
“Let’s pray,” Pastor Harmon said.
She closed her eyes and listened. She didn’t understand everything he said, but she knew one thing. She liked listening to him very much. She liked being in this place, being with these people. She liked the Bible passage she had just read. It had never dawned on her that God was intimately acquainted with all her ways, even knew what she was thinking. She’d always thought God was too busy for regular people, that He only had time for important people, like preachers, presidents and generals.
After he prayed, Pastor Harman said, “We’ve just read from God’s book. But did you see what David says here in this Psalm? He said God has another book. A book He has written about our lives.” As he normally did, the pastor spent the next thirty minutes going over each verse and explaining what each one meant, then how they applied to everyday life. Katherine listened to every word.
Then he said, “One of the most meaningful things the Lord has shown me, especially since the war began, is the value and importance of living for Him one day at a time. To awaken each day aware of our complete dependence on Him, then very quickly, before our minds begin to fret and try to take charge, we need to yield our hearts and turn our thoughts toward Him. If we don’t, we wind up living like orphans fending for ourselves, as if everything is dependent on us. Our lives become full of anxiety and fear. Because deep inside, we know we’re not really in control. Think about it…how much of your life—even this week—went just the way you planned?”
Katherine answered the question in her head…none of it. She realized, all she ever did was worry about tomorrow, what might go wrong. If not tomorrow then she worried about the rest of the week or the next month.
“Instead,” he said, “We need to awaken each day as a disciple—as it says in Isaiah 50—to listen as one being taught. Our most important task is to surrender our will, our plans, our agenda for each day to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us on the cross.”
The cross, she thought. He’s talking about Jesus.
“We know,” said Pastor Harman, “that God’s faithfulness toward us awakens with the sunrise. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning. And the Psalm we’ve just read tells us that our future—all the days of our lives—though turning one page at a time for us, are already written in God’s book. Have you ever thought of that? God has written a book for each one of us—the book of our lives. And each day is like a page. How many pages do you have, do I have left in my book? What things might happen in those pages? I don’t know. But the One who made us, He knows how many pages we have left and what’s written on each one. And we know Jesus promises to be with us as each page unfolds, leading us and guiding us by His Spirit, as we take hold of His hand and follow.”
That’s the end of the Pasted text from The Homecoming. I hope it helps you the way it helped me. This is the perspective I want to re-commit to in 2024. To live in the good of these words. To live one day at a time, pursuing whatever God has in store for me, to experience the things He’s written down in the Book He’s written about my life.
—Dan Walsh