Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle, graduated to heaven last September. To the world, she is most known for her award winning children's books, the first famous one being A Wrinkle in Time and a series that followed it. (This is a great series for reading aloud to kids!).

However, it has been through her non-fiction books that she had become one of my mentors. For more than 20 years I'd had her book Walking on Water, Reflections on Faith and Art on my shelf. Written in the 70's, nearly every Christian and Artist I respected had told me that this was THE book to read as a Christian in the arts. However, when I picked it up as a younger person it was too "all over the place" for me. I wanted a book on this topic to give me clear answers, and the right answers. At that time I was looking for some book like this to give me a better apologetic for who I was as an artist (because I so desperately wanted to justify myself somehow to my evangelical world who called me 'artsy' with a hint of a scoffing). For my part I felt like I needed to be less "all over the place" myself. This meandering book, was not the golden ticket I was searching for.

20+ years later, in 2007, I picked it up and began to read. No longer with the need to prove my artsy-ness to anyone, and meeting with some other female artists for prayer on Monday mornings, I would read passages aloud to them and we'd all be captivated. Finally at a stage in life where I'm rock solidly convinced this is how God made me, and he has declared it GOOD, Walking on Water was like having a leisurely conversation over tea, or while strolling through the woods with an older and wiser friend. I still haven't finished it, but have felt this past year that I could pick it up savor sections of it when I had the time to listen more to the thoughts of Ms. L'Engle.

She also became a mentor to me about friendship through the book she'd written with her long time friend and publisher Luci Shaw. I wanted to learn what they had to say about female friendships and loved what I found in Friends for the Journey.

I've just finished reading a wonderful tribute to Madeleine written by her friend Luci Shaw. I learned more about this remarkable woman, some character qualities of hers that I'd like to emulate. You can find it in Books & Culture, A Christian Review. This is a free newsletter through Christianity Today.

Have a good day walking on water!