First up, please scroll down and check out my groovy recipe for oven roasted marinara. I'm really very proud of it. I think it's one of my best. Oh, and a heads up... I'm working on a recipe to send in to a contest. I've never entered a recipe into a contest before, and I'm a bit nervous about it. Hopefully, I'll be able to share the results of my experimentation with you all next week.
So, today we're at the letter R. This one certainly wasn't as tough as the last couple of A to z Challenge posts have been. I knew, pretty much right away who I wanted to talk about. He is an angel, and his name is Recorder.
Recorder is the narrator of one of my favourite series in the realm of Christian fiction. For a long long time, the term 'Christian fiction' implied a certain saccharine fluff, usually associated with a cleaner, more innocent Little House on the Prairie (yes, that is sarcasm my friends). There were a few notable exceptions in the midst of all the lightness and happy endings, and Gene Edwards' Chronicles of the Door (sometimes also referred to as the Chronicles of Heaven) is one.
The series is comprised of five books, each centering on a key event in the Biblical narrative (The Beginning - creation, The Escape - the exodus from Egypt, The Birth - the birth of Christ, The Triumph - the ressurection, The Return - the end of time), all told from the perspective of the angels. Recorder is given the task of recording all that he sees.
What I love most about this series, and about Recorder, is the very different perspective that is taken on stories that I have known intimately almost all my life. Seriously, this series of books changed my understanding of linear time, of eternity, and of God's omnipotence. They are simple little books, and each can be read in a couple of hours. But their footprint lingers for ages.
Has there ever been a novel that has had a direct impact on how you view the world? Changed a paradigm?
I read a story by Pearl Buck...a poor seamstress who stitches a dress for this lady, and who is not given her due amount. The rich lady assumes that if she clearly expresses her happiness and satisfaction with the outcome, it will make the seamstress ask for more money.
ReplyDeleteSo, the lady likes her dress but chooses to find faults with it, and deny the poor seamstress the reasonable compensation. For those imaginary flaws, the poor seamstress who desperately needs the money is scolded and comes out underpaid.
It changed my way of looking at those who don't have much - not the beggars, but those who are putting in hard work and trying to stay afloat.
That story changed my view on so many things.
And another that I will always remember is Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea'.
ReplyDeleteHave you read it?
Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl. A.MAZ.ING. Read it while I was struggling a bit with depression, and WOW did it change how I viewed everything. Um, also Mere Christianity by CS Lewis was an eye opener. Neither are fiction, but still, two of my faves.
ReplyDeleteAnd that marinara looks really good! It's pretty close to one that I do. I'm supposed to oven roast everything in it, but I'm too lazy... I only roast the tomatoes. LOL. Mmmm. And totally true, nothing better! I make mine mostly in the summer when we have a billion tomatoes in our garden (seriously last year we had 11 tomato plants going) and then I can it. That way it lasts longer, though it doesn't taste quite as "fresh" as it would if I just froze it... still it's virtually free to make with a big garden, so I just can my little heart out in late summer. :)Homemade spaghetti sauce = THE BEST EVER!!!