I've done the 'read the bible in a year' plan before. Twice, I believe. And yeah, my eyes did glaze over in Numbers and Leviticus. And Amos; it was incredibly repetitive. Love Ephesians though. And Hebrews.
But of course there are ALWAYS new things to learn, to glean over verses and discover new and wonderful things. Or even discover strange, icky, funny things too.
For example, something I had never 'noticed' before in 2 Kings, was that Elisha the prophet, was the first (I think) to bring back a boy from the dead. He had to lie on him, nose to nose, eye to eye, a whole bunch of times, and then the boy sneezed 7 times and woke up. Then Elisha asked for food to feed the masses and was only brought a few loaves, but through God's miracle, fed everyone and had extra to pack up (hm...). The funniest part was the sneezing I thought, and I can't help but wonder if someone is studying this verse very intently, coming up with reasons as to why the boy sneezed, and why he did it seven times.
The next section that kinda grossed me out, was in 2 King 6 - two 'moms' decided that because the famine was so bad, they would cook up one their sons and eat him and then eat the other son the next day. But they only ended up eating one because the next day, the mom refused.
Um, what?
I can't even... I don't want to even think about that.
And my all-time favourite verse, which I love to shout out at my husband every once in awhile because we have fun shouting quotes to each other (yes, we have much fun on our own) is during the time that Rachel is trying to get pregnant, and is becoming more bitter and angry at Leah, who seems to get knocked up at just the sight of Joseph, and she finally snaps at Joseph and says, "Give me a child or I'll die!" (Genesis 30....) Oh, how we laugh at that one.
My point here is not to laugh at the Bible, but to point out that 1) it's terribly funny at times, 2) gosh, the stories you could write about what they say! and 3)it's incredibly entertaining! Until you get to Leviticus....
My new novel that I have finally finished and am seeking representation for right now (yes, prayers are always welcome!) has a main character named, Tamar. Anyone remember her? She's King David's daughter. Did you remember? Did you remember that her brother, not Absalom, but the other one, Amnon, fell in love with her and pretended to be ill so she would take care of him? And then he did awful things and then kicked her out, and she was ashamed and Absalom says, 'he is your brother, don't take this thing to heart', and then David finds out and he's furious, but he does nothing? Good story, isn't it? So I took that awful story (I don't mean good as is in, glad it happened, but as a good plot), and expanded on it to make it my own.
Tada!
So, look at that. Not only can we use the Bible as our awesome guidance and encouragement in this world, we can also use it to stimulate our creativity, fill us with inspiration, make us laugh and put us to sleep when we have insomnia...
I'm kidding!!!!
kinda...
Jenn Kelly is an awesome author, in case you were an agent who just happened to be reading this... she is very funny and smart and laughs a lot. So she'd be good to work with. Just saying.
This is her and hubby on a couples' canoe trip on the Petawawa, in which they inserted goofy teeth to make the couples laugh because four hours of flat-water canoeing is boring.
Her next book will hopefully be out soon.
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