Tag: Jewish

Pondering in My Heart

My pregnancy brain thoughts about Mary in her culture and her time – and how it relates to us in our time.

December 24, 2018

Pondering in My Heart

It’s Christmas Eve.

Usually, at this time, my mind overflows with thoughts about Mary, Jesus’ mother.  I think about her boldness when she says “let it be to me as you have said.”  I think about how the Bible always adds this little line after something she hears or watches; “and Mary pondered this in her heart.”

I especially feel empathy over the Christmases when I’ve been pregnant.  (2009 and 2011 when my babies came a few days into the new year were very busy with my pondering… so much that I wrote a children’s story about Jesus’ birth one of those years!)  This year, my little blessing is due to show up in about eight or ten weeks.

I like to study the culture of the person I’m trying to study: the historical significance of their world, the turmoil they faced, the cultural norms that differ from what we have today.   These little details help me to step into their shoes and wiggle my toes around. I like to imagine what it would have been like to be Mary, likely between 12 and 14 years old, among her Jewish community controlled by an Empirical Roman government when highways were roamed by soldiers and bandits, family and community were everything (so doing something against the community would have been horrid), and the talk of sedition (rebellion) was strong and swiftly crushed.  I wonder about her life: her childhood, her struggles as a parent, wife, and community member.  I remember that when she said “let it be unto me…” she was just a normal girl allowing God to use her.

She was like any one of us.

She had to humble herself before God and she doubted; as she even said, “but how can this be…” questioning the miracle before agreeing to be part of it.

She must have been a logical thinker like me.  “…pondered this in her heart…” That is what I do all the time.  Whether or not I speak, write, or pray about it, I think about everything that God surprises me with in life.  I want to put the puzzle together, but realize that God knows far more than me so I relax and resign myself to just “pondering” (thinking) and praying about what I don’t understand.

I love how the Bible uses real, authentic people.  People just like you and me are scattered in every story.  Every one of them has doubts, challenges, questions, obstacles, and life choices just like us.  Every one of them must make their own decisions, just like us.

We like to think of them in their glory – after they’ve moved to where they are in victory.  We remember David killing Goliath, Samson destroying the false temple, Mary as Jesus’ mother at or after his birth, Peter evangelizing, Paul traveling all over the known world, etc.  But each of them started as a normal person who had to make his or her own active choice to give of themselves and allow God to take the lead.

During Christmastime when I’m constantly rereading the story of Jesus’ birth to my children, I’m reminded that I have to humble myself and allow God to continually take control in my life so I can be and do what God has planned for me.  I encourage you to give God control over every aspect of your life – He designed you, He knows you best!  He knows the desires of your heart and sometimes you may not even know them yourself!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

The Big Wave

What can football have to do with a discussion about Roman-era cultures?

September 8, 2018

The Big Wave

Football season started…

Yes, we watch lots of college football and I have one daughter determined to be a Gator cheerleader for at least one season.

Becky and I are watching Ben-Hur and we start talking about Biblical families and eventually trace back to the origin of the Ishmaelites and Israelites.  Sheik Ilderim is one of Becky’s favorite characters in Ben-Hur and she’s making the case that his culture appears to follow nomadic Jewish teachings.  (This was another hypothetical history, culture, and religion play debate.  I love to make their brains work by asking questions and playing “defense attorney” when they choose to lay a case for something.)

During this discussion, Becky says “well, Ishmaelites are technically all family; sons of Ishmael like Israelites are all sons of Israel.”

I said, you could go to say we are all descendents of  Noah.  She replies with “Adam,” pauses, “oh, yeah, Noah and his family were the only ones living after the big wave.”

And I, with my over-active imagination, get a hilarious mental picture:

I see cartoon water as “wavelets” all lining up and “doing the wave” around the Earth like football fans around a stadium.  Little wavelets rise up on top of each other like cheerleaders in a pyramid as they shout, “we’ve got to cover all those mountains!” There’s a dolphin with flippers up shouting, “roller coaster!”  A few hammerhead sharks try to ride the wave (my Daddy tells a story of surfing into the Savannah River & seeing hammerhead sharks surfing next to him).

I will never think of the Great Flood without hearing Becky’s voice say “big wave” and seeing that mental picture.  (Used to be, when I heard “Noah” and “ark,” my brain replayed the 50s cartoon Noah where everyone is singing and this line always sings through my mind: “I’m Mother Noah, Captain Noah’s wife, I wear the pants aboard this boat, you bet your life.”)  I like the wave-surfing sharks and roller coaster loving dolphin picture better.

Sometimes the over-active imagination of a writer is a strange thing…

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Finding Perspective

For whom am I writing? An author’s first question to be answered before beginning a story.

December 20, 2017

Finding Perspective

One of the most important things for me to find when I’m writing is the perspective of my target audience.

Simply: for whom am I writing?

For Web of Deception, I was writing to the adventurous young adult (myself and my brother), for the Brantley Station Saga, my target is young adults, and my target readers for The Devonians are those in first through fifth grade.  The Funny Sisters stories are written to be read-aloud so they are more complex.  My goal for them is to entertain both the mom or older child reader and the younger preschool or elementary listener.

Story From the Inn was written when one of my girls mentioned, “I wonder what it was like to work at the inn where Jesus was born.”  (We had just watched a show about the culture of Jewish life in Jesus’ time and read through a book about growing up where Jesus lived.)

I imagined the small inn at Bethlehem run by a family (most were in that time) and one daughter (one my girls could relate to) always trying to help yet always getting underfoot.  This became the eyes and ears of my target audience (my little girls).  Children would relate to Rachel and see, hear, and feel that inn, culture, and special event through her eyes.  I dove into some more specific research and developed Rachel’s story of Jesus’ birth as remembered by a beloved grandmother while entertaining several grandchildren awaiting a new baby’s birth.

Rachel epitomized most children: full of life and expectancy, eager to help, longing to please, and constantly asking questions.

In the moment, Rachel doesn’t understand the magnificence of the event, she only feels elated that she gets to help with a birth (something “big”) and hold a newborn baby (for the first time).  As the storyteller, she reflects on this as an adult, to complete the circle.

Check out Story From the Inn to read Rachel’s story!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

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