There isn’t much time!” She said it with emotion but really it was out of fear. They were late for the ten o’clock train and there wasn’t another tonight. As they crossed the street heading for the station, he knew why she was afraid. On the surface it would seem that fear was from the idea of being stuck overnight without a place to stay but it was more than that. She needed to be out of this place tonight and so did he.
On a dead run they reached the platform in time to get onboard. Once inside the train both breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, at least for now. The train began to pull away and put on speed. He put his arm around her, “It is over now!” he said with a smile. Her smile was grim as she whispered, “It will never be over.”
These are a couple of paragraphs from a book I started to write years ago. All my life I have loved books and especially detective mysteries. I must have read thousands of them. From Sherlock Holmes to modern day detectives like Kinsey Millhone in the “Alphabet Series” by Sue Grafton. I could never get enough. And it was a goal of mine to someday write one myself.
All of that changed as I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I mean, I still love to read and love the idea of a mystery but the books I used to read paled in comparison to the real-life detective story I found in the Bible.
Maybe some of you never thought about it, but the sixty-six books that comprise the Bible are some of the greatest stories of mystery and detection ever written. The difference is that none of it is fiction and all of it was written under the inspiration of God.
When I first started listening and reading the Bible I struggled with the world view, thinking that it was just a book of fanciful stories that none of it could possibly be true. The weird thing is I found that the Old Testament stories from the books of Genesis through Job were so intriguing that they compared with any novel I had ever read. And to tell you the truth, even though at first, I refused to acknowledge them for anything but fiction, I could not help but be moved by their honesty.
If you have not spent a lot of time in the Old Testament the one thing you can be assured of is that the authors hold nothing back. A book such as Judges describe life in a way that everyone of us can identify with and even if some of the stories are horrific, we see a truthful depiction of ourselves with all our warts and blemishes. And more amazing a depiction of a God who wants to save us even when we are that awful.
But what about the ideas of mystery and detection I spoke of. Well, in every good detective mystery, a crime is committed. The plot as always centers around detecting who the perpetrators are and bringing them to justice. The Bible fulfills some of these criteria, but with a twist. At the very beginning of this book a crime is committed. A perfect society exists after creation. God and man are in a beautiful relationship. Then the villain shows up in the form of a snake. And like in the best novels, a crime of passion occurs. The snake convinces Eve that God is not being truthful, she could have it all. She just needs to break the one law He has set. Do it and she could be just like God. Eve commits the crime and Adam is convinced also. But here is where the Bible has a plot twist most novelists would find to fanciful. Even though Adam and Eve are guilty God spends the rest of the book proving their innocence by taking the blame for the crime and paying the price with His Own Son. In the end He dies in their place, innocent yet willing to save the very criminals that offended Him.
In the end the Bible departs from all man-made novels or books. It has stood for millennium because it goes beyond the power of just one dying to save another. You can find that in many novels, The Tale of Two Cities comes to mind. But this One who is willing to die to save those who have committed the crime is also the one who gives us the hope of life we can find no where else. In the end of this book, He conquers the very villain who had started the whole mess, Satan. And we are not only forgiven but our crimes are washed away in His blood. If we accept Him, we are held innocent before the judge. It is declared, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) An amazing ending.
I struggled with the Bible for years. But today I believe it to be God’s own words and our best tool for salvation. I no longer want to be a novelist, but I hope some of the words I write in these blog pages bring joy and peace to you. That is a blessing I never aspired to!
Blessings John