Preface to this series: Back in 2019, towards the beginning of this blogging venture, I wrote a series called “Christians and the Creative Writing Process.” Now, seven years later, I wanted to revisit the topics to expand them and add new insights. The original version of this post can be read at this link.

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As a writer, I find it amazing that Jesus used parables to convey his messages. The Son of God used stories—sometimes explicitly naming God, other times not—to preach to the masses and point to the larger truths of the Gospel. He used these parables to plant seeds, then explained what the stories meant. As a Christian who does not write explicitly Christian fiction, this aspect of Jesus’s ministry has encouraged me for years. My hope and prayer is that my stories will function in a similar way: incorporate rich spiritual truth about God and the Gospel that points to Jesus, all while telling a compelling narrative where those themes can be explored fully and deeply.

The larger story of the Bible, or the “metanarrative of Scripture,” is another storytelling aspect that accomplishes the same: it all points to Christ, both in prophecy and in a real-life parable, in a sense. The prophet and wisdom books of the Old Testament all gesture towards a coming Messiah: Isaiah, Ezekiel, Psalms, even Job, as Job hopes in his Redeemer (Job 19:25). The history told in the Old Testament does the same. The Fall of Man in Genesis receives a response from God promising a Serpent-Crusher; Abraham is promised to be the head of a great nation, pointing both to the people of Israel as well as the Christians to come; Exodus tells of God saving His people, with the Passover feast a foreshadowing of the Ultimate Passover Lamb in Christ. The failings of the Judges, the Kings, and the Priests of Israel also point to a need for a True Judge, a True King, and a True High Priest, all of which is fulfilled in Jesus. And these are but a few examples. The larger point here: the story of the Bible, of Scripture as a whole, all culminates in Jesus, pointing to His first or second coming, to our desperate need for rescue, and to God’s faithfulness to answer and fulfill His promises.

It feels fairly lofty to say, then, that I hope my books can accomplish the same. They will never be as rich, as deep, as moving, and as true as Scripture and the pure Word of God, but I do hope that some fraction of my flawed storytelling can point to Christ in deep and compelling ways. Weaving the themes of Redemption and Sacrifice into my narratives is one small way I pursue these allusions to Christ and the hope of the Gospel, as these are two of many Scriptural themes that gesture to Jesus across all of Scripture.

As mentioned earlier, Jesus also told stories to communicate truths about God and His Kingdom. What I find fascinating—and often overlooked—is that Jesus had to explain His parables at times, even to the disciples. For example, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field” (Matthew 13:36 CSB). On another occasion, the disciples conflated figurative and literal bread in Jesus’s message to them. Jesus responded: “Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?” to which the disciples reacted: “Then they understood that He had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:11-12 CSB). I like these moments for a number of reasons, perhaps chief among them that it humbles me. The disciples struggled to understand Jesus’s meaning, which reminds me of my own need for the Spirit’s help in reading and understanding Scripture. As an application to writing, too, thinking about how Jesus’s parables could confuse even the disciples, I recognize that not everyone may be able to realize what it is I’m attempting to communicate on a thematic level in my stories. Both of these observations together remind me to be open-handed and to trust the Lord with my storytelling. It is possible that He will use even my own writing to teach me something more about Him or to communicate truth in ways that I’m not even consciously aware of. It also reminds me I still have much to learn, even as a Christian of nearly 20 years.

There are also moments while Jesus tells parables where the intended audience picks up on His message, or at least grasp that He is trying to communicate with them. Later on, in Jerusalem, after a pair of parables, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they knew He was speaking about them” (Matthew 21:45). These were not fluffy stories either; these were the Parables of the Two Sons and the Vineyard Owner, parables that call out the Pharisees’ unbelief and rejection of God’s Messiah. Whether they understood the message truly or just recognized Jesus was speaking to them is not clear from the text, but I think this moment is also a good reminder for us writers. Our stories may be for specific people, and we should also be open to God using those stories in big or in small ways for those specific groups. That still does not mean that the message will be heard and received by that target audience, but nonetheless, if we are called to tell a story pointing to a specific truth, including calling people to accountability, then we should trust the Lord and write that story boldly.

In fact, as Christian writers, we need to trust the Lord with our themes and stories entirely, because we can also get in our own way and get it wrong. I try to be intentional with my theme development in my stories. Since the Word of God and its Truths are central to compelling, Christ-oriented themes, I pick several “theme verses” as a part of my theme development process. This was true ten years ago, and it is still true of my practice today. However, as I write this, I’m realizing that selecting these theme verses should not be a one-and-done thing. I came across my theme verses for The Myth-Keepers this morning as I looked for something else I had written in my very disorganized notebook, and it struck me that it’s been a long while since I even read the theme verses for the series. With The Myth-Keepers, they are organized by character, since the themes are mostly explored through the main characters’ arcs. I’m convicted over how infrequently I actually look at my theme verses and that I should do more than just pick them at the beginning of the writing and development process. I should be meditating on these verses as I write and seek out additional ones as the story develops, because this is part of trusting the Lord with the themes of my stories and making sure I’m pointing to Christ in all that I write. I would even like to try committing those theme verses to memory, or starting a writing session by meditating on the ones most related to the specific book I’m working on.

As I wrote seven years ago, and as I still believe to be true: Themes are perhaps my favorite part of the pre-writing process. It fills me with so much joy and passion to spend time in Scripture looking at various truths, weaving those themes into the narrative of my stories, and devoting time to pray about each novel’s message. Sometimes when I write, I can forget why I’m writing a particular story. This makes what I said a moment ago about meditating on Scripture and theme verses all the more important, because refreshing myself on the themes and taking time to ground myself in Scripture related to the heart of my stories serves as a wonderful reminder for the ultimate purpose of my writing: to glorify the Lord through the gift He’s given me.