#113 A strange and wonderful coincidence

In my new novel My Freshman Year: First Book about me accepting a full scholarship to a women’s college when they thought “Jacques” was a girl’s name. That is a fascinating tale and has received some very favorable reviews. One of the things in the story is I go running around a country section in the middle of the night two or three times a week, because that is the only time I can be sure to have the showers to myself. I write that I have heard an owl and I just called a barred owl, even though I know nothing about barred owls. But later one of my friends said she had a dream about walking along that road and seeing the owl on a fencepost. It looked at her and said “hoo hoo hoo aar yoo” twice, then blinked at her and flew off. She believes the owl was trying to tell her something but had no idea what. I had the interpretation to her dream and we shared it with the whole campus at the next chapel service and it had a positive effect on many, including one girl who was healed from an emotional problem. I end the story after six weeks because so much good has happened I wanted to leave the readers on a high note.

I am now working on the Second Book, a sequel. In the process of writing Thursday, my roommate said she wanted to run with me. When we got to the meadow, she heard the barred owl and said to me, “That sounds exactly like what Carol said she heard.” Now all this is in my imaginary tale, but it made me curious what a barred owl actually sounds like. So I found a recording of barred owl calls on the Internet. As I listened, I was stunned out of shoes, so to speak. I heard a barred owl call that sounded exactly like what carol said, including the exact same number of syllables. Why did I consider the owl being a barred owl? Why did I write that Carol heard a sequence exactly like a real barred owl call, when I never knew any of that? It tells me that this is not just my imagined tale. God had this whole thing in mind when he inspired me to write it. Everything fits together too perfectly for this to be just an accident. And I am certainly not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to have written it intensionally.

So when you read My Freshman Year: First Book remember you are not reading just an imaginary tale of my invention, you are reading something that shows all the marks of divine inspiration. The message that God wants communicated through this part of the story is for each of us to find our identity and purpose in being the person He created us to be. Everyone has been created with special gifts to be a blessing to others in some way and an honor to Him. Be the person God created you to be, not the person you want to be or that society tells you to be. What else does God have in mind for this book and it’s sequel? There is already more in My Freshman Year: First Book and I can see more coming in the sequel. Stay turned (especially to the holy spirit to learn who He made you to be which will take your whole lifetime).