Baby Picture, News, & Notes on Greek

Hi Friends!

Well, baby's 2 1/2 months old today, so I thought it would be a good time to post a current picture of him. So, here he is! He's doing great and is very tolerant of his over-loving sisters. He's a real joy to our family!

In other news, I'm finally back to working on my next novel, Shades of Morning, and gearing up for promotion on If Tomorrow Never Comes, which releases on March 17. Today the bookmarks and postcards arrived for that book, so that was fun! Which reminds me, if you'd like to hand out bookmarks or postcards to your friends, family, the folks you meet on the streets ;-), just send me a note with your address, what you'd like to giveaway, and how many you want me to send to you. I really appreciate it when y'all help get the word out on my books! :-)

And lastly, I finished an interview today and one of the questions was about how reading the New Testament in the Greek differs from reading in English. I thought it would be fun to share my answer to that, so here it is:

Reading in the Greek is a lot richer and more nuanced. I absolutely love finding some little thing in the Greek that you can’t see in the English. For example, reading in the Greek has deepened the meaning of so many familiar passages for me. Two of my favorites are 1 Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:13. 1 Peter 5:7 usually reads, “Cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you.” But in the Greek the meaning is more along the lines of “because it matters to him concerning you.” When I was struggling with whether my pain, my hurt, my sorrow, my disappointments mattered to God, if I truly mattered to him, it was the Greek that spoke so deeply to me to confirm God’s love. I had read the passage a hundred times in English, but when I saw it in the Greek, God used it to heal my heart.

Similarly, Philippians 4:13 is the familiar passage which usually reads, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” But in the Greek, the word for “strengthen” is actually “in-power.” And that has been so encouraging for me. God doesn’t just take what I already have and give it a boost (which is how I’d been reading “strengthen”), but he puts his own power in me (like it says in the Greek). And that’s why I can do all things – because I am in-powered, not just strengthened.

And one more before I move on (I could go on about the Greek for pages and pages, but I’ll spare you!) The name of my “mystery character” in If Tomorrow Never Comes is Aletheia. That’s the Greek word for Truth. It also shares the same root as the word for “unhidden.” So, I’ll let readers figure out how truth and unhiddenness are key to understanding the book’s final twist. Happy reading!!