In the back of my mind, in a way that only novelists can understand, a man began talking. He was the Scribe. I listened and realized this was my story. It wasn’t until I returned home and began researching angels that I realized there really is a scribe angel mentioned in Scripture. I was mesmerized!
The study of angels is fascinating: They’re sent to minister to us, they’re often terrifying to see, and they’re eternal beings. They know your history better than any genealogist. I’ve never seen an angel, though I frequently beg God for the chance. Honestly, I wonder if He’s protecting me, because I already “hear voices” when I write, so to see angels might make me seem certifiably crazy. I have had some unusual experiences, like many of you, however.
One lazy afternoon, before I had children, I was napping on the couch. I woke but did not move. I heard men’s voices, deep and soft, and as I listened, I could not understand what they were saying. Of course, I reasoned, it was the TV. I must have left it on when I fell asleep. So I stirred to turn it off, and the voices snapped to a stop.
The TV was not on.
I’ve always wondered if I heard angels talking that day.
I don’t dwell too much on thoughts of the supernatural, though. I have enough trouble in the world I can see. But there are moments when I am aware of a world overshadowing ours. While working on this book, my family began to have the strangest experiences of our lives: family members having the same nightmare at the precise same moment in the bleak hours of the night, startled awake by our dogs who were howling in response to something no one else could see or hear. (I used these nightmares in Anne’s dream of a menacing black bridge.) We had children complaining of nighttime shadowy visitors who wanted to communicate with them. I heard a voice speaking to me one morning, too, and thinking it to be my husband, I turned and saw I was alone. At least, I hoped I was! (For the record, a little holy anointing oil on the doorframes and a mother’s finger-wagging prayer works wonders.) I don’t understand any of it, but as I dig into book two of this series, and continue to read the Bible from cover to cover and back again, perhaps I’ll grow in my faith enough to understand.
One thing I do know right now: to write well requires pausing. Reading, too, is a pause. In these rich, still moments, the Spirit of God, who permeates the world around us, breaks through the chaos and creates something new in our hearts. It takes great effort to pause. I am learning to do it more often. Thank you for taking time to pause with me. I hope God did something new in your heart, not because of my words, but because you were still and listening for Him in these pages.
That’s why I write. To pursue truth and change, to empower women and stir up hope. For the next two novels in this Scribe series, I will be telling you the stories of the most important women in history and the angels who guarded them. They won’t all be famous women, but their lives and deaths bought for us the opportunities we have today. We’ll walk with them through the most turbulent times in medieval history (and indeed, world history) and we’ll stand ready for the future.
Grace to you all,
Ginger
www.GingerGarrett.com
Notes
From Anne’s churching: The service is taken from The Book of Common Prayer. It appears to be a copy of the 1552 version. My copy contains the letter that Queen Elizabeth, Henry and Anne’s daughter, wrote to the churches, and was published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd. 144 Cathedral Street, Glasgow. There is no date of publication, but on the inside cover there is a delightful little inscription: “To Ethel, that the happiness and hopes of this day may always stay fresh in our hearts. Martin. May 29th, 1939.” The book was a precious gift from my London friend Paul Kercal, who is a fellow ginger-top and thoroughly British. God be with you and yours, Paul.
Henry’s letters to Anne: Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn By Henry VIII
Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2006
Details on Anne Askew’s burning: Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (Thomas Garrett’s martyrdom is there as well.)
Bibliography
God’s Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible—A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal, Brian Moynahan (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003).
Henry VIII, Jasper Ridley (London: Penguin Classic Biography, 2002).
In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture, Alister McGrath (New York: Anchor Books, 2002).
The Life of Thomas More, Peter Ackroyd (New York: Anchor, 1999).
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, Retha M. Warnicke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
The Riverside Gardens of Thomas More’s London, C. Paul Christianson (New Haven, CT: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis, Yale University Press, 2006).
Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired, Benson Bobrick (New York: Penguin Books 2002)