Advent Writing

The church I attend is very welcoming of the arts and encourages artists to create things for our services and worship times. There's a group of us who write and we were asked to write pieces for the four weeks of Advent based on our reflections on the sermon Scriptures (from Revelation) and the whole Nativity story.

I'd never written anything for one of the holiday seasons before but decided to give it a go this year. I'm a fiction writer, so that's what happened when I sat down. I'll post links to the whole series as it comes out, though I'll probably be about a week behind.


Here's the introduction to the series and the link to part one, Alpha and Omega.

When I began reading Revelation in preparation for Advent writing, I never imagined I would be writing fiction. But as I asked God what he would have me write, the character of John Patmos – with all his past and all his current circumstances – came to me in a flash. My first reaction was No way. I can’t write something that’s got a science fiction bent for Advent. As I thought for the next few days, I had no other ideas, and John Patmos – and specifically the exhortation in Revelation 1:19 – was clamoring so loud in my head that I couldn’t help but agree to tell this story and trust that this was what God had for me this season.

On the other hand, fiction has always spoken loudly to me, and it’s where I’m finding my identity as a writer. C.S. Lewis’ beautiful Space Trilogy brought me to understand the framework of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation in a way that no lecture or religion textbook could. Creating John Patmos’ story has helped me remember – again – that those are the four over-arching acts of all of our lives. We are in a constant state of Advent, waiting between Redemption and Consummation, and that has brought a renewed sense of hope to me this season.