The Making of Christmas Morning: backstory and the white line

 A long time ago, I wrote a story called Christmas Morning for my four young kids. At that time, their ages ranged between 4 and 9. Today, they are young adults between 28 to 33! When I wrote this story, it was one of those times when the words flowed from my pen in one sitting. I loved the story then, and I still love it now.

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In a nutshell, Christmas Morning is about a little girl who wakes up on Christmas morning and then excitedly opens one gift after another. Each of these tangible gifts symbolize the intangible realities that we all have as Christ followers. It's a simple story with deep meaning; therefore, this book is for both the child and the parent.

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Periodically over the years, I would pull Christmas Morning out of my cabinet and attempt to have it published. I also sought out different artists, but in God's wisdom and timing, the answer to both the publication and illustration of it was "No...not yet." That is, until my son Davis met and married his beautiful Jesus lovin' wife Acacia, who also happens to be an artist. When I asked Acacia about potentially illustrating Christmas Morning, she drew a picture of how she envisioned the little girl in the story. When I saw her picture, I immediately knew that I had "met the little girl" that I had been waiting to meet for the past 25 years. God is good, exceedingly, abundantly good.

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So, Acacia was hired! She and I have been working together on this project for almost a year now. We meet every Monday morning via facetime. (She lives in North Carolina and I'm in Tennessee.) Our hopeful goal is to be completely finished and ready for the world to see it by September 1, 2025.

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In the meantime, my plan is to share different features that are within the book, the first one being the white line which can be found on almost every page.

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What does the white line mean? Simply put, the whimsical white line which swirls around the little girl as well as her presents is meant to portray the deeper and divine mystery that each gift holds. It helps make the invisible God visible, showing that he is wonderfully at work behind-the-scenes. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 3:17, Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The white line symbolizes this freedom, found in Christ alone.

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Ironically, I am now reading book after book to my four young grandchildren. This activity is by far my most favorite thing that I do with them, just as it was with my own kids all those years ago. One thing they (my kids back then and my grandkids now) love to do is to trace lines with their little fingers on any illustrated page of a book. Whether it's a windy road, or a train track up a hill, or a kite in the air, they each take turns following the lines with their fingers. My heart's desire and hopeful prayer is that the white lines on the pages of Christmas Morning will be traced by thousands of little fingers, and that each and every one of these children will eventually understand the line’s depth of meaning: that the Spirit of the living God is wonderfully at work all around them.

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Stay tuned… The next post will be about the book’s specific color scheme and why!

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