Sacrificial Love by Rebecca Seaton

                         Sacrificial Love by Rebecca Seaton

                    

    Celebrating the birth of Jesus might seem a funny time of year to be thinking about sacrificial love. Surely that’s more Easter? But to me, Christmas reminds me of that too: our God came to earth not as a king but as a baby to live and grow as a human and ultimately to die for our sins. Living as a human, fully man whilst fully God, was no small sacrifice in itself. Growing, eating, sleeping, just sharing a house with family, being different but living with them like equals. Also, there weren’t the creature comforts we have now. Jesus was walking or riding a donkey in hot, sandy conditions. Just like us, He experienced loss, was mocked, saw friends suffer. But He chose to do this knowing He had the power to do what he liked. We often talk of His life as a sacrifice and mean when He gave his life on the cross, but it’s important to remember His life itself was also a sacrifice, living as a man while following His Father’s voice.

 

    In our writing, sacrifice can point the way to God when it reminds us of a bigger picture. Sacrifice isn’t without reason. Whether a character is sacrificing their life or something else, it is almost always because of what they believe in, whether that’s a political cause of the love of a particular person.

 

    So if there is a sacrifice in our stories, our earlier words should point towards this. The sacrifice doesn’t work if it’s out of nowhere, it must fit the characters’ beliefs and principles. These should have developed over the story. If it’s for love, we need to believe that the one person really feels the other person comes before them, whether it’s a lover or a family member. Sometimes, it’s not life itself but lifestyle. Some great comedic situations come out of the ‘fish out of water’ idea and one character moving somewhere to help another is a good way to generate this. For a character to go on a journey through a book, they will have to leave their comfort zone, making the sacrifice to step out of the normal world and risk the unknown. They may be forced, to an extent, by circumstances, but ultimately, they will have to make a choice. This is often when the reader gets behind them: we admire their choice and like to think we would do the same if in their situation.

 

    Whatever you’re writing, think about the following:

Does any sacrifice fit the story?

What does it tell us about your characters?

How would readers be able to identify with it?

 

    Most importantly, what does the story say about your own views on sacrifice? When you look at the Christmas cards with the baby in the manger and see, at the same time, the man and God He is, whatever this means to you will be there when you write of sacrifice.

 Rebecca Seaton came second place in the 2017-18 Pen to Print Book Challenge with her YA fantasy, A Silent Song, which explores issues of faith, forgiveness and belonging. She is currently working on her second novel.

 

 #amwriting #amwritingfantasy #ACW