{"id":3216,"date":"2023-12-04T08:06:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T13:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2023-12-04T08:07:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T13:07:26","slug":"the-author-who-wrote-herself-into-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/04\/the-author-who-wrote-herself-into-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Author Who Wrote Herself into the Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,<\/em> click here<\/a>
 
In 1915, Dorothy Sayers became one of the first women ever to graduate from prestigious Oxford University in England.
 
Actually, she wasn\u2019t given a degree.  That was a privilege granted only to men.
 
Sayers finally received her sheepskin retroactively in 1920, when Oxford concluded that women might be worthy of academic accolades after all.  An acclaimed poet, playwright, essayist, and translator, she spent the rest of her life giving her alma mater good reasons to celebrate that decision.
 
Sayers was tall.  She was not regarded as classically beautiful.  She wrote detective novels in her spare time.
 
She\u2019s best known for two things.  One was her association with fellow Oxford writers C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.  The other was a series of short stories and eleven full-length novels that featured a character named Lord Peter Wimsey, the prototypical British gentleman detective.
 
In Sayers\u2019 mind, Lord Peter wasn\u2019t just a pale figure of fantasy.  He was a living, breathing human being: a man of average height, beaked nose, intellectual brilliance, and \u201ca vaguely foolish face.\u201d
 
Novel by novel, the clever and resourceful Lord Peter makes his way through life, solving murders and mysteries left and right. 
 
But there\u2019s also something inherently sad about his life.  He\u2019s single.  He\u2019s all alone. 
 
So Sayers decides to bring into his world a female character named Harriet Vane.  Although Peter and Harriet don\u2019t exactly hit it off at first, they ultimately fall in love and get married.  Then they solve murder mysteries together.
 
What do we know about Harriet?  She\u2019s tall.  She\u2019s not regarded as classically beautiful.  She attends Oxford.  In her spare time she writes detective novels.
 
Does this seem vaguely familiar?<\/em>
 
Scholars have long speculated that Sayers used herself as the model for Harriet Vane.  She was the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey.  She had invented his world from scratch.   As Lord Peter\u2019s story continued to unfold, she saw his deep needs and felt his yearning and loneliness. 
 
So she rescued him. 
 
She wrote herself into the story in order to become his friend, ally, and lover. 
 
Does that sound crazy, or what?<\/em>
 
But when you think about it, that\u2019s exactly what God did.
 
God created you and set your story into motion.  God knows in infinite detail exactly what it\u2019s like to be you \u2013 to struggle with your limitations, to face your fears, to ride the roller coaster of your good days and not-so-good days, to wonder about your tomorrows.
 
Christians believe that in the person of Jesus, God wrote himself into all of our stories.  That\u2019s what Christmas is all about. 
 
\u201cThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us\u201d (John 1:14).  The Greek word translated \u201cdwelt\u201d is literally \u201cpitched-tent.\u201d Imagine Jesus coming to your encampment and putting up his tent right in the middle of your life.
 
He\u2019s written himself into the middle of your neighborhood.  Your work.  Your hobbies.  Your family. 
 
Which means you now have a friend and an ally \u2013 someone who truly loves you \u2013 who is committed to coming alongside you and helping you solve whatever mysteries you\u2019ll be facing this week.
 
Including what is no doubt the most interesting mystery of all: who you are and who you are still becoming as an ongoing character is God\u2019s unfolding Story of the world<\/em>.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1915, Dorothy Sayers became one of the first women ever to graduate from prestigious Oxford University in England. Actually, she wasn\u2019t given a degree.  That was a privilege granted only to men. Sayers finally received her sheepskin retroactively in 1920, when Oxford concluded that women might be worthy of academic accolades after all. … Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,23],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-incarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3219,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}