God's Storyboard

 

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1-7 ESV).

 

When I decided to write The Lone Star: Independence I did not know nearly as much as I would when I finished it! I have written other books, though this one was a new venture since it was a work of fiction. Some of you may have read it. It was a fun experience though difficult at times. I knew enough to begin with an outline of where I wanted the story to go; however, the more I wrote the outline, the more I found it necessary to have what is known as a “storyboard.” Of course, there were other necessities before the first paragraph was ever written. I had to have a character tree, which was ever expanding as the story did.  

 

I knew the elements of the story; and, I knew that something needed to happen for it to become a story. Something needed to take place that hadn’t already happened at the beginning. But getting a story from the beginning to the end isn’t as easy as we might think. The characters in the story needed to set out on a new adventure, or they needed to deal with new problems or needs that had arisen and needed fixing. That is what is called the plot of the story. Ultimately a good story usually involves some kind of trouble: some problem to be fixed or a situation to be resolved. Without some kind of trouble you end up with a boring story.

 

The story of the Bible charges directly into the worst trouble imaginable. By chapter 3 the entire creation has been ruined by the main characters. As a perfect world crashes into its curse, we discover that somebody needs to do something. There is the reference to the protagonist defeating the antagonist when Moses writes that God said to Eve: “… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (v. 15). It is a clear reference to God fixing the trouble with His Son, Jesus (cf. John 3:16).

 

This is God’s story. The world is broken, but he will fix it! Praise be to God! There is so much more to this story. For now, thank God for His perfect solution to our dire need!