Oh To Write Well

So, how have I gone with tidying up those loose ends? Well, I’m slowly getting there. I’ve finished another two books that I was in the middle of reading and I am working on my children’s book again (yay!). I’m also trying to get back into reading the writer’s blogs that I’ve subscribed to and commenting on different articles that author’s are writing. It’s amazing how much there is to write and read when one takes the plunge into writing. All in all, I continue the learning journey. I know I shall always be learning. I guess we all are.

I have been reading through the amazing book of Ruth. As with most things it’s taking me a while to get through this study. I just listened to the first of four talks about this book and I am renewed in my eagerness to read through the whole thing and learn once again from this story about God’s mercy and great love.

I love how the Bible is story after story after story and within each story, linking to another, is the overall story of God’s love for us and his plan to rescue us.

I am appreciating the book of Ruth more and more as I learn about what good writing is. Ruth is simple and yet so complex. It’s short and to the point and yet full to overflowing with rich meaning and symbolism, emotion, tragedy, drama, romance, quest, allegory. What other plot patterns can be seen in this one story?

Naomi and her family leave their homeland because there is no food and they are propelled into this incredible experience of immense tragedy. Naomi leaves empty to return home with Ruth a stranger, a symbol of everything that has gone wrong. Naomi and Ruth are in need of family and food. And the first chapter ends there except for the second half of the last sentence, “arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.” What a cliff-hanger of a chapter ending, to make you want to read more. It’s full of hope and expectation.

Oh to be able to write like this.

I’ve been reading a wonderful children’s Bible to the boys. They want to read it after every meal and not just our usual after breakfast. It’s called “ The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every story whispers his name,” by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago. This book clearly shows how every story within the Bible is linked and pointing go Jesus.