So Long, Farewell: A Final Post from Natasha Woodcraft

It's been my privilege to occupy the 20th Day of More Than Writers month with you for the past two and a half years. In that time, you've journeyed with me through the highs and lows of publishing two prayer journals and a novel, writing numerous blog posts, moving to a smallholding, acquiring about 30 animals, setting up a new Christian publishing company, selling books, giving away books, failing to sell books – and figuring out how to praise God through it all.

What a ride it's been.

Finding Creative Corners

When we first met in August 2023, I was writing about "Cooking, Crabbing and Creative Corners" – stealing 15 minutes at the laptop during the school holidays and starting my day with God at 6am before the chaos began. 'Finding creative corners is difficult when life is chaotic', I wrote then. 'Yet these precious moments are what keep us going, what define the difference between existing and living.'

Little did I know it would get even more bonkers as time went on.

Whether it was planting potatoes in a messy south-facing vegetable patch, digging channels and pulling self-set trees, or fighting for sabbath rest in a busy household – I kept returning to the same truth: transformation doesn't happen without dirt. It's in our mess that God meets us, changes us and inspires us to share that change with the world through our words.

Life was exhausting enough – and then came the animals. About 30 of them, including naughty cats who destroyed the Christmas tree, and the goats.

The Great Goat Escape

Perhaps my most memorable blog – certainly the most chaotic – came in August 2024 when my goats escaped. For three days I hunted fields, chased them, called them, even played goat noises on a portable speaker. I rose at 5am, prayed all night, got them into the right field only to watch cows chase them right back out. I knelt in the grass amongst cow pats and cried out, "Why, God, why?"

It was a faith crisis wrapped in a goat crisis. I'd just published a book about the transformative power of praying Scripture over your writing, and I couldn't even get God to bring my goats home. The irony wasn't lost on me.

But perhaps that was the point. That book—From His Heart to Yours—isn't for writers who have it all together, who are ultra-successful, whose prayers always get answered the way they expect. It's for those of us who question. Who doubt. Who struggle. Who write their blogs a day late while kneeling in repentance (or cow pats).

A picture of last year's kids – just because they're cute

Coffee, Filters, and Finding God in the Chaos

When life gets bonkers busy, the things that get pushed out first are usually our writing and those long sofa chats with God – the two things that don't contribute to the family coffers but matter most to our souls.

I've shared how our writing process works like a coffee filter. We shove in our raw ideas, our first drafts, our unpolished experiences – and then comes the filtering. The editing. The revision. The slow, patient process of putting our books through the filter of prayer so they can glorify God the most. You can't rush good coffee. You can't rush good writing either. Each pass through the filter – each prayer, each edit – transforms our rough grounds into something smooth and nourishing that others can actually drink in.

The Practice of Rest

And somewhere in all that chaos – the house move, the animals, the publishing company, the writing, the goat escapes – I had to learn something crucial: Rest isn't laziness. It's essential. It's Kingdom work, even when the world screams that productivity is all that matters.

I shared about this when I was at a much-needed writers' retreat (The In-Between: Resting.) Rest can be even harder to achieve than work in our culture. But sabbath matters. Those moments when we stop striving and simply be – those aren't wasted time. They're when God does His deepest work in us.

The Darkness and the Hope

There have been darker moments too. Watching the news and feeling despair. Wondering where God is. Facing piracy and seeing our work undervalued.

Our times aren't unique. As I released my novel, The Wanderer's Legacy, I shared about that journey – early humanity progressing steadily toward the flood, just as society today catapults toward certain ideas and actions. But even in darkness, there's always been hope. I hope you've seen that and been encouraged by it as you've journeyed with me.

A Christmas Farewell

And so, as we draw towards the end of the year, I get to celebrate a third and final Christmas with you. Many of us will probably watch The Sound of Music at some point over the holidays, so it seems fitting to borrow from the von Trapp children:

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.

This is my final post on More Than Writers.

Thank you for walking with me through escaped goats and planted potatoes, through faith crises and prayer-filtered editing, through messy gardens and precious creative corners. Thank you for showing up month after month to read these words.

May you find your creative corners this Christmas season. May your writing be filtered through prayer until it glorifies God. May you rest well. And may you keep writing, even when the goats escape, even when the rejection letters come, even when you're kneeling in the cow pats crying "Why?"

Because sometimes God's plans don't look like profit. Sometimes they look like transformation. And that's worth more than all the royalties in the world.

Have a Wonderful Christmas, one and all. With love and gratitude, 

Natasha

Natasha Woodcraft lives in a slightly crumbling farmhouse in Lincolnshire with her family of boys and animals. She believes stories have power to communicate deep truth and transform lives. Her published novels explore God’s redemptive purposes for ordinary, messy people living in biblical times. Natasha is also on the team at Broad Place Publishing and the Kingdom Story Writers.

Image by monreal312 from Pixabay