Mystery Novels

One gift my mother gave me for Christmas was a novel by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark called “Santa Cruise.” Now if you like mystery and/or suspense novels, you need to read Mary Higgins Clark. My favorite of hers would be a novel called “All Around The Town.” She is the queen of the genre.

However, readers of my blog know that there is always a point if I decide to bring up something like this. Why am I talking about a mystery novel? Now there are some exceptions, but in most of the mystery novels of Mary Higgins Clark, the characters are not detectives but simply ordinary people. The police do play a hand investigating, but usually, it’s ordinary people trying to make sense of an odd occurrence in their world.

If you like a good mystery though, you know that the better an author is, the more you can expect everything to weave together. This includes such things as actions side characters take that seem ordinary, moves that the villains make, and of course, the actions of the hero.

My sister gave me Season Five of Monk for Christmas which I shall use an example. Whenever I watch Monk, I know that I have to pay close attention. If a detail is brought up, it will be important and I will need to remember it for later. The writers of the show know how to bring them all together.

Mary Higgins Clark does the same. She ties in all of the events that happen to bring about a resolution. I have to read the novel and realize that while some tragedies will happen, ultimately, the bad guys are not going to get away with what they’re doing. In the end, good will prevail and what suffering is taking place is happening for a reason.

Nah. Couldn’t be any analogies there….

I then try to look at my life as flowing from the greatest author of all. Will I look at each person with greater detail now? Will I try to see how the actions I don’t understand are flowing into a great tapestry that I just don’t see? Is each person really a fascinating character in this drama, though I may see them as simply ordinary? Is each of us really paying a part in a grand story by the greatest author of all?

Seen from that perspective, life takes on new meaning. It is suddenly an adventure and worth paying attention to. So many times, we seem to go through our lives in a neutral gear where we’re just drifting. Instead, we need to be out there taking it by the horns. We as Christians especially as we are the heroes in this grand story. We are the ones fighting for the cause of the good.

I urge you today to see your lives as stories by the master author. Realize that like all good authors, some things are allowed we don’t like, but when you reach the conclusion of the story, it all makes sense and you realize “That’s why it happened. The author did know what he was doing.”