Thank you to everyone who stopped by my site #6 in the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt this past weekend! All 30 authors had great turnouts and we had three grand prize winners along with many others who won prizes on individual author websites. For my part, I’ve already mailed the books to both the grand prize winners and the winners of my personal contest. Thank you to all who participated and I hope you will enjoy connecting with me through this website or my newsletter.
If you didn’t win this time, stay tuned this fall when there could be another one. Lisa Bergren has been running them spring and fall for several years. Hopefully, she will be able to continue as they are a lot of fun for all! (Though a lot of work for her!)
Speaking of work…I’m back to it. As I mentioned briefly in my newsletter, we spent three weeks in February in Oregon helping out our son and daughter-in-law and grand baby girl. That put my next book about Joseph on hold for a few weeks, but I am happy to say that it is now “in house” waiting to hear what my editor thinks of it. So while I wait for her comments, I am researching Eve’s story.
If you are familiar with Genesis and the story of beginnings, you have heard of Adam and Eve. You may also have heard of a variety of explanations about the creation of the world itself. I do not plan to tackle the story of creation with the possible exception of how it related to Eve. What I am doing now is reading anything I can find on her, along with the biblical account.
As I ponder Eden and life before sin and evil, I find it beyond challenging. If we think about it, at what point in life have we ever not known some type of conflict? If you watch the news, what sells? Bad news. Evil. Horrifying. Tragic. Though to break it up, they might throw in one feel-good story. But if all they talked about were feel-good stories, would anyone watch? I might. But apparently their ratings tell them that good news doesn’t sell as well.
The same is true for story. Have you ever read a book that had absolutely no conflict? Truth is, we want conflict in our books. We just don’t like it in our lives.
I read one commentary on Eve that suggested she chose better because her curiosity made her want knowledge and wisdom. But the author misunderstood the nature of the temptation was not to simply acquire knowledge and wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Eve needed only to ask God for wisdom and she could have received it. The tempter wanted her to understand evil. Eve already knew good. It was everywhere she looked. Why on earth would she want to know evil? Maybe she was curious. But she also knew that disobedience to God was wrong.
But that’s getting ahead of myself. I’m still in the, “what might paradise have looked like, felt like, tasted like, smelled like?” mode. I’m also trying to imagine what pure innocence, like that of a baby, might have felt like for an adult. Can you imagine it?
If you’ve ever pondered life without evil or sin, paradise before it was lost, or have questions yourself you might like me to consider, please comment below or send me an email. I take a few months to research, and I’m just getting started, so any thoughts are appreciated.
Be blessed~
