Heroes With Heavenly Inspiration

www.freedigitalphotos.net  

For the next two weeks The Writers Alley is celebrating the 10 Days of Christmas. Each AlleyCat is putting her own spin on a Christmasy-themed post.

So…. I was trying to figure out what to do with mine.

As a romance writer I wondered what made Christmas such a romantic time of year? The cold gives us a reason to snuggle closer? The family time warms our hearts, and the mistletoe? Well….you know how much THAT inspires our romance J

All those things contribute to the warm-cuddly feelings associated with Christmas, but I think the biggest reason is because we celebrate love coming down to Earth.

As Christian authors, how do we express this love in our writing?

I think the basic love of Christmas is what we, as Christians, remain (or should remain) in awe over for the rest of our lives. God gave himself as a gift to the world and that type of love permeates our lives and spills over into our writing.

Awe.
Wonder.
And the overwhelming beauty of unconditional love.
It’s why romance writers LOVE heroes.

www.freedigitalphotos.net

This time of year there is a verse in Isaiah that is quoted a lot. Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given
And the government shall be upon his shoulders
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Okay, okay…so what does Isaiah have to do with writing romance? And in particular, writing heroes?

If this weekend has taught us anything, it’s that our world has a lot of darkness in it. Few people go out to destroy other lives, but there are plenty so caught up in themselves, they cannot see (as Mary Poppins put it) “past the end of (their) own noses”.

There are broken families, broken lives, dark hearts and minds, so we are looking for HEROES!

God knew it!

www.freedigitalphotos.net

He sent One. The ONLY one who could get at the very ‘heart’ of our trouble and shine the light of His love.

I think that’s why Christmas inspires romance all the more. The greatest love and perfect hero.

And those verses? I think we all write heroes who will bring some element of this ‘perfection’ into our worlds. From a Christian standpoint, nobody can measure up to Jesus. He is perfect!

But His love inspires our creations J

So how do we try to write heroes with Heavenly characteristics?

Counselors? – Yep, we try to write smart guys.

Mighty? – Of course, actually, the Hebrew translation here resembles the idea of ‘heroic’. We want our guys to be heroic and strong!

‘Everlasting?” – Yes, we write Heroes who give an ‘everlasting’ love. Our heroines fall in love with them because they exhibit an ‘everlasting’- faithful love.

‘Peace’? – Despite the male-female banter than comes along in many fun books, there is an element of ‘peace’ that the hero brings into the life of the heroine. An idea of completion.

As created beings who are never fully complete until our hearts beat with the love of our Creator, we use our Calling as writers to create a human example of a divine love. Isn’t that cool?

Christmas inspires love? Sure it does, because the greatest gift of love was given.
And a little mistletoe and fireside snuggles make our writing jobs all the more exciting!
So…..

How does YOUR faith and your thoughts of Christmas inspire your writing?