A Memorial

I just learned that my favorite author, Madeleine L'Engle, passed away yesterday. She was 88 years old and died of natural causes. She wrote many books, including her most famous book, A Wrinkle in Time, for which she received the Newberry Medal for children's literature. I've read many of her books, many of them as an adult rather than a child. Her ideas were startling to me, but were very freeing. She was a christian who reveled in science as an expression of the awesomeness of God. She was never afraid to challenge the status quo of the religious establishment because in her faith, her God was big enough to stand up to our tiny notion of who we think He is. Mostly, her imagination was refreshingly vivid and broad.

I am most indebted to her because of her book Walking on Water. Like many young artists, this book changed the way I saw what I did as an artist and christian. She called for christian artists to step up their game, to never settle for mediocrity in what we think of as "art". She saw art as a pure expression of the nature of God. Most importantly, she opened up the world of so-called "secular" art for me. She said that true art tapped into the glory of God and reflected creation. If you can see that through the art, it doesn't matter what religion or background the artist had; it was true art regardless. She says it so much more eloquently than I can--if you have any artistic leanings, please take the time to read it. Her ideas may really expand your horizons.

I love her writing. I have always felt a kinship with her through her writing. I guess that's why I feel like I've lost a friend. Some of her books are very personal, especially a series she wrote about a summer she spent with her grandmother as she was dying. She always let her readers into her life in a way that was intimate and special. Always, her writing was about life, the dark and light parts of it, about good and evil, and the unquenchable power of love.

Madeleine, you will be missed and remembered. I hope and pray that my journey as a writer could lead me to drink as deeply, to write as beautifully, and to imagine as limitlessly as you did. You have blessed and changed my life though you never knew my name.