Best Way to Know a Book Is to Know the Author

The art and craft of writing books have fascinated me for a long time. Having written, co-authored and edited more than 20 books myself, I know it’s a complicated, challenging endeavor. Author Philip Yancey has described the writing process as something like this: “All you have to do is sit at the computer, fingers on the keyboard, until beads of blood appear on your forehead.” (Who said writing is ‘no sweat’?)

I identify very well with another of Yancey’s observations about writing: “I hate to write – but I love to have written.” Sometimes I can be extremely creative in procrastinating from sitting at the keyboard, but the end result from the hard work of writing can be very rewarding. 

 

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interacting with a number of other authors. I’ve concluded that we writers are a strange bunch, many leaning toward being introverts since we spend so much time inside our own heads. 

 

Most of us will never meet our favorite authors – especially ones like Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, the Bronte sisters, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and many other literary greats who have passed from the scene. But in reading their books, we can capture a glimpse of who they are (or were). Because most of the time, authors write about things that interest or intrigue them. 

 

For instance, horrormeister Stephen King (whom I’ve met) obviously has a fascination with things that go bump in the night. As did Edgar Allan Poe. Agatha Christie must have thought it great fun to conjure up a good mystery. John Grisham revels in courtroom drama. And Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov had a particular penchant for the collision of science and futuristic fiction.

 

However, while books offer a glimpse into what authors think about, their writings don’t always reveal much about what they’re really like in real life. Are they as clever and engaging in person as characters in their books? Do they have sinister, brooding personalities? Would we enjoy being their friend? 

 

On the other hand, don’t you think you’d understand a book better if you truly knew its author?

 

At this point we should note a very important difference between every other book and…the Bible. Consisting of 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament), compiled from about 40 different people who wrote under the inspiration of God, the Bible truly is the Word of God. Its pages teach us not only what interests Him but also reveals who He is – in extraordinary detail.

 

As 2 Timothy 3:16 informs us, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” One new believer concluded after reading this verse, “God wrote a book!”

 

Not only that, but despite its many ‘sub-books’ and numerous human writers, the Bible is unique in that it carries one central theme that spanned thousands of years: redemption through Jesus Christ.

 

Books, whether produced on physical paper or displayed on an electronic screen, consist of words, sentences and paragraphs. The Scriptures tell us something about Jesus that no one else has or could ever claim: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:1,14).

 

If we wonder what God is like, we need look no further than to Jesus. As Hebrews 1:3 tells us, “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” In one of his books, Yancey expressed it this way: “Jesus became the visible, finite expression of the invisible, infinite, inexpressible God.”

 

When we think of famous authors, Jesus Christ might not be the first name to roll off our tongues. But the Bible states Jesus indeed was an author – in the most profound sense. Speaking to a crowd of people at a place in Jerusalem called Solomon’s Colonnade, the apostle Peter declared, “You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 3:15). 

 

Later in the New Testament we find another reference to Jesus’ authorship. Hebrews 12:2 urges us, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 

Both passages show Jesus as a different type of “author,” not the writer of a singular work of non-fiction or fiction, but the giver of life itself. Even though we have beating hearts, blood pulsing through our veins, and air in our lungs, the Scriptures teach that apart from Christ we are spiritually dead. Yet because of what He has done on our behalf, we can experience and enjoy new life:

“…because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

 

Another verse I’ve cited before speaks of this new life, available to everyone who will receive it: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

Receiving Christ’s gift of salvation, forgiveness and redemption not only assures us of life after death, but also eternal life right now. We know this because of what God says in the Bible: “I write these things to you who believe in the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Note this doesn’t say, ‘you will have eternal life,’ but rather, “you have eternal life” – present tense.

 

The Lord doesn’t just want to turn a page on our lives. He wants to start writing a new book in us. I like how James Banks, a devotional writer for Our Daily Bread, put it: “The author of life stands ready to write new beginnings for us!” Doesn’t that sound good?

Carols That Communicate

With this post being scheduled to appear on Christmas Day, I’m wanting to say, “If you’re reading this on Christmas, don’t you have something better to do?” But perhaps you’ve unwrapped the gifts, had a nice meal, enjoyed visiting with family and friends, and are choosing to unwind in front of your computer, tablet or smartphone. (Wow, how things have changed since I was a boy!)

Anyway, in the event someone has a few spare minutes to visit websites and blogs and such, and this is one of your brief stops, I wanted to ask a question: What’s your favorite Christmas carol?

One of mine has always been “Silent Night,” written in 1818 by Franz Gruber. Literally an oldie but a goodie. I especially remember hearing it in the Hungarian Reformed Church I attended as a boy, sung simultaneously in English and Hungarian. What a great memory.

On their Christmas album, the vocal group
Pentatonix sings "Mary Did You Know."

You might also be partial to songs like “The First Noel,” “Away in a Manger,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” or “Deck the Halls,” all Christmas classics. Or you might prefer the more generic tunes like “The Christmas Song” (who doesn’t like chestnuts roasting on an open fire?), “Jingle Bells,” “White Christmas” (especially the Bing Crosby rendition), “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” or even “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Or the unforgettable, “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” written by Randy Brooks and performed by Elmo and Patsy.

In recent years I’ve adopted a new favorite: “Mary Did You Know,” written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene. It’s really a artfully conceived tune, using an economy of words to tell the story of Christ from the crèche (the familiar Nativity scene) to the Cross. Most recently a singing group called Pentatonix has made a wonderful recording of it, one I’ve been enjoying throughout this Christmas season.

Throughout the song, Mary – the human mother of the Christ Child – is asked a series of questions, ones like “Mary did you know that your baby boy will some day walk on water?...that your baby boy has come to make you new?”

In an amazing note of irony, “Mary Did You Know” makes the statement, “This child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you.” Then it adds, “And when you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.” Wondrous, almost imponderable truths for those of us who profess to be followers of Jesus, God incarnate.

I especially like the final verse:

“Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?

This sleeping child you’re holding is the great I am.”

Each of these concepts is worth far more than a fleeting thought. Because as I wrote in my earlier post, without the Cross and what it represents in terms of God’s love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and final verdict on sin, we’d have no reason to celebrate Christmas or join in singing cherished Christmas carols.

But because of these events – true, historically documented events – we can trust in the declaration from the Scriptures that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1,14).

So once again may I wish you, not “happy holidays” (although I wish you that, too), but Merry Christmas!