Framing Echoes by Emily Owen

A couple of weeks ago, I went to be interviewed for a TWR radio programme. The interviewer, James, had sent me the questions beforehand, so there were no real surprises.

As we were chatting before the interview, he said the words that, to an author - at least, to me - are gold. They're often gold-dust, too: “I read your book” followed by the icing-on-the-gold, “I liked it.”

Perhaps due to aforementioned gold-dust, I confess I am never sure how to respond. It almost feels like I’m being given something so special that, if I touch it – or speak – it might be a dream. But I did say (or manage to squeak out!) thank you, and we talked a bit about the book, then began the interview.

After the interview, as I was getting ready to leave, James said he had a card for me. I opened it, pulled it out of the envelope, and that’s how I came to be surprised by my own words.

James had made me a beautiful card, with a quote from The Power of Seven – the book we’d spoken of earlier – on the front. I was overwhelmed, and grateful, and the card is now framed and standing on my desk, giving me joy every day.

I was surprised to pull words I’d written from an envelope, words God gave me to write in turn being gifted to me. The section of the book we particularly spoke of was from the ‘Echoes from the Cross' section:

The cry echoes from the cross down through the ages,

‘I thirst!’

It is an empathetic cry for

it is a genuine cry.

‘I thirst.’

He felt need.

Discomfort.

Dehydration.

‘I thirst!’

I feel discomfort,

I feel dehydrated.

Worn out.

I need something more than I have.

I, too, thirst.

‘I thirst!’

Oh, sharing Father,

Help me catch hold of that echo.

Its love,

its genuineness,

and, in doing so, realise that

I’m not misunderstood.

Jesus was.

So I would always be known.

‘I thirst!’

The strength of every echo is

its source.

Reminding me I’m recognised.

Always.

By You.

‘I thirst!

Help me to listen to Your echo.

All it means,

all it stands for.

Enable me to let it resound into my life and days.

May I never let Your echo fade.

As Christian writers, we have the huge privilege of catching hold of God’s echoes, and framing them into words on a page.

A prayer that is regularly prayed from pulpits, before people speak, is from psalm 19:

Perhaps we could pray similarly, every time we sit down to write:

'May the meditation of my heart as I catch Your echoes,

and the words of my pen as I frame them,

be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer….’

Some time ago, I was spending time with my niece. One of her favourite things to do when we’re together, is watch songs on YouTube. It’s one of mine, too; those times are very special. Her coming up to me and requesting, “Can we go and watch songs, just us?” is rarely – ok, never - met with “no”.

She often chooses songs she sings at church, and then she sings along with them. On this occasion, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of her reflected on the screen, singing her little heart out:

‘May all my days bring glory to Your name.’

The song begins with words from the psalm above: ‘O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.’

May the meditation of my heart as I catch Your echoes,

and the words of my pen as I frame them,

be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

May all my words bring glory to Your name.

May I never let Your echo fade….