One of my childhood heroes has passed into light. Madeline L'Engle was author of over sixty books including the Newbery award-winning children's book, "A Wrinkle In Time," and so I thought it fitting to share a bit.

"Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically."

Madeleine L'Engle told her stories through the lens of darkness and light; the struggles of life transformed by love. Her books afford me an escape and retreat unlike any other... where the champion fumbles along, beset by the evil within and blindly grasping for a firm footing with each new page. And then our hero is surrounded by seraphs and starlight of such profound beauty that they start to open their eyes and drink in the wild, glorious truth. That's when I step out of her books and return to my own adventure, better equipped to fumble along through the battlefield of life.

"Read any daily paper: you've got to survive, you've got to walk through the dark to get to the light. It isn't free. It takes courage to walk through the dark."

Alongside the ranks of Richard Bach, C.S. Lewis, and Susan Cooper, L'Engle's Time Series is one of the most influential writings in my life. Each book pairs the simple, cheerful, and warm moments of a family... with the massively, soberingly, and cosmically significant whispers of the stars themselves. Each book is at once rooted in a singular moment in history as it is a jaw-dropping arc across millennia. Madeline L'Engle challenges me to walk through life in "the deepest communion with God beyond words, on the other side of silence."


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