Do you miss Madeleine L'Engle too?

Madeleine L'Engle was born 40 years before I came along. She wrote her first story at five years old. At five, I was still making mud pies and playing with bugs. Author of more than sixty books, L'Engle is best known for A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal in 1963.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even read A Wrinkle in Time until I was an adult with children of my own. I must’ve grown up on Mars or the literary equivalent. Anyway, when I did read it, I was entranced.

Why? Because Madeleine L'Engle blended science fiction, fantasy, and faith in a way that portrayed God as exciting. Relevant. Urgent. In A Wrinkle in Time, L’Engle made a young teen girl the main character in a story where the forces of good and evil are joined in mortal combat. And this girl, with her manifold flaws and failings, is the one who must set things right. Her choices and actions matter. SHE MATTERS! (Can you hear me shout that?)

I didn’t start writing when I was five. More like thirty-five. And I didn’t start with fiction. But when I was ready to write stories, I asked God (this is true and slightly embarrassing) to help me write like Madeleine L'Engle. Because she inspires me to write stories that weave together science and fantasy and faith, to give teen characters choices and actions that matter, to portray matters of the heart and spirit as exciting, relevant, and urgent.

I miss her. Don’t you? I’m thankful we still have her stories.