Words Uneclipsed by Emily Owen

Last month, a friend and I celebrated our birthdays and Christmas. Neither of our birthdays is in February, nor is Christmas, but February was the month we finally got around to celebrating them together. We went to Stratford upon Avon and had dinner, followed by a Shakespeare play.

Being deaf, I need to go to plays that are captioned - spoken words appear on a little screen, like subtitles on a television - so, when booking our tickets, I ensured we had seats that would give a clear view of the screen.

I’m very grateful for the screens which allow me to access theatre, but it turned out I’m not the only one. As far as I’m aware, I was the only deaf person sitting in our area of the almost at capacity theatre, but conversation in the interval showed that I was not the only one reading the captions. Hearing people were glad to read the words, as it helped them follow what was being said.

As Christian writers, dare I suggest that the words we write help people – and ourselves – follow what God is saying, follow His heart? Yes, I do: It’s a privilege God gives us.

I recently had an email from a reader: ‘It’s like you’re inside my head and heart.’ 
I’m not, of course - but God is. And by His grace, the words He gave me reached this person deep inside.

So I want to encourage us in our writing. We never know who might be glad to read our words, or who might find them helpful in their walk with God.

In the same week as the theatre trip, I received a text from my mum, dictated by her little granddaughter. Apparently, my niece was desperate to send me the message ‘I love you, Aunty Memem xx’, followed by her choice of emojis: a wink, a shocked face, a puzzled face, and a kiss.

I thought this was quite funny, and posted it on Facebook, stating that I’d decided to focus mainly on the words.

As we write, it can be easy to focus on the tantalising wink of a nearly-but-not-quite contract, or the shock of dashed hopes from a rejection letter or a poor review, or the ‘why’ of no book sales, or the…   

Let’s focus on the words we write, place them back into God’s hands, and pray that He will use them to draw people closer to Himself.

The wink and the shock and the puzzlement can eclipse our words.

They can also eclipse God’s words.

Don’t let that happen…