In August we took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park. We drove out to the Badlands, then on to Ben’s parents’ house in Wyoming, and then continued on with them to Yellowstone. We planned to sleep in a tent, but his parents were afraid we might get eaten by bears so they shared a camper with us. Good call.
For weeks God had been telling me that I had a message to share and He wanted me to write it in a fiction novel. But I had given up on writing, and I told Him so. I’ve encountered enough criticism and rejection in my previous efforts to leave me wounded and completely discouraged.
Finally, just before our trip, I said: “All right, God. I’ll write a novel for you. But I don’t have a single good idea in my head. If you truly want me to share my message through a novel, You’ll have to give me the story line.”
Then one night while we were in Yellowstone, Ben forgot to close a window in the camper. It was SO cold that I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t know a window was open. I just thought it was that cold outside!
I lay there trying to fall back to sleep when suddenly words starting forming in my mind as I watched a story playing out. It was the story line I had asked for. The words for the first two chapters came to me that night as I lay wide awake, shivering, wondering if the rustling sounds outside the camper were hungry bears prowling around in search of food.
And as we drove twenty-seven hours back across the country, I found the details for the story beginning to fill in. The good news was that I had a novel to write! The bad news was I wasn’t very good company for Ben.
But he had mint Oreos and music, so he was ok.
Has God ever given you an idea in the middle of the night?
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