Several months ago, I wrote a
philosophical metaphor on my website entitled, The Geometry of Life. Here on Hoosier Ink,
I’ve considered how our lives as writers affect eternity within this theme of
geometry. It’s deep but simple. I promise I won’t strain brains that are not
math-oriented!
Let me start with lines. Lines give me a stomach ache, and my
fifth grade classes often experienced the same reaction. I told them to think
about forever and drew a line on the
chalkboard for the entire length of the board, an arrow pointing away on both
ends:
<------------------------------------->
I started my speech. “To my left,
this line continues off the board, through the window, across the parking lot,
goes all the way through Indiana, then to outer space until it’s beyond our
solar system, our galaxy, and beyond the farthest galaxy that we know about. It
never stops.” I moved to the right
and repeated another set of distance markers. Long before I finished, the class
was moaning as the idea of forever began
to sink in.
God’s existence has no beginning
and no end. Excruciating to our finite minds. As a child, I tried to
picture forever. My mind traveled as
far as the stars beyond my vision, and then, and then… and then…….. I pictured
a kite sailing in a blue sky. Imagination had to return to earth. I couldn’t see forever. I couldn’t handle
the concept.
Moving on to rays. I marked a dot on the board, then drew a line in
one direction to the end of the board. I told my students: “Every person can be
compared to a ray. Each of us has a starting point. Starting points we
understand. We were born, we live a given number of years, we pass from this
life, and we spend forever in heaven
or in hell.”
.---------------------------------------------------->
The students’ groaning started
anew. People have a beginning, but they have no end. While my limited mind
can’t wrap itself around the glories of heaven forever, I’m smart enough to
know that I don’t want to exist in the agonies of hell for any amount of time,
much less forever. My students agreed.
Line segments are easy. We’re comfortable. Time on earth is a line
segment. You’re born, you live your life, you die. Life on earth has a
beginning and an end.
._______________.
Points became another challenge for my classes. A line, which goes
on forever, is made up of points. One… after the other… You can’t count them. They
are of infinite number. (Another
chorus of groans.) But each point is significant. I completed the analogy by
demonstrating how each point is a single human life on earth making up the line
of eternity.
.
What I do with my little dot on
eternity has a bearing on which direction I eventually continue, an eternal
ray.
As writers, our words will most
likely outlive us. Anything we publish will affect our readers—positively or
negatively—for Christ. Even our personal letters can inspire or devastate
readers for the rest of their lives.
Love God, help your neighbor, work
hard to produce something good in God’s eyes. This is every writer’s mission.
God gives us guidance in an infinite number of ways to accomplish our tasks.
At this point in my life (pun intended), I
want, more than anything else, for my stories, my novels, my blog posts, or my
articles to point to Jesus, a ray
pointed toward heaven.
Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids
ages ten to fourteen. She is currently working on a middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own
experiences growing up with a deaf sister.
Linda had always figured she’d teach middle-graders until
school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair at the overripe
age of eighty-five. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing
passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her
students and dedicated her work hours to learning the craft. She still visits
the school and teaches creative writing workshops.
Where Linda can be found on the web:
I apologize to readers for any confusion with the illustration of my "line." It sure didn't appear that way when I previewed the post! Here's what I was attempting to show: <--------->
ReplyDeleteWe got it! And this is a very cool way to explain this to us. Thanks!
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