We Are Two-Way Characters
People have thought of themselves as gods of their own story characters, but has anyone else thought of themselves as characters in the story of their God? Has anyone ever thought, looking back on a part of their life, “Wow, what a great turn of events!” or “Wow! If only I’d known how ironic that was!” or “What an amazing plot! I wonder what will happen next.”? Well I have.
Granted, I don’t often understand the story when I’m in it, and there are plenty of seasons that are downright not enjoyable. For whatever will come next–sometimes we can tell what will happen, but in general, we have no clue. And like fantasy, anything is possible with the Creator we have for the story we’re living in.
Sometimes I can imagine characters in books to be like us, not merely as people, but actually as characters, if that makes sense. For instance, Enid Blyton is the creator of The Mountain of Adventure, and so is the creator of Lucy Ann, Jack, Philip, Dinah, and Kiki the parrot, as well as the adults, Bill Cunningham and Mrs. Allie Mannering. In the series of eight adventure books, the four children and parrot continuously fall into one adventure after another, even if they try to avoid it.
In this fifth book, Lucy Ann is quite sure they won’t fall into any more. “‘There’s one thing about this holiday,’ said Lucy-Ann, ‘we shan’t have any awful adventures, because Aunt Allie is absolutely determined to go with us, or send Bill with us, wherever we go.'”
But they do have another adventure, and Mrs. Mannering could not even go with them because her hand got caught in a heavy door. Next thing you know, they’re alone in the mountains, and uncover yet another scheme in another fascinating scene.
The children even mention at another time to themselves that yes, it is funny how they keep falling into one adventure after another. “Yes,” I think to myself, “because Enid Blyton is leading you into them!” Lucy-Ann never enjoyed these adventures while she was in them, but Enid Blyton brought her through them all too.
Like the lives of those adventurous children, we are also being led through our lives. Unlike human authors, our Author’s plot is perfect and kind toward His characters; nothing is out of place, and nothing is without emphatically significant purpose. And ironically, while His plan may not be ours, His agenda is absolutely of our greatest interest: to save us and have us be reunited in communion with Him Who is love.