Many of you have done amazing things to let your light shine in this world. We want to introduce you to a young author who has been making her mark in a very special way. Naomi Stahnke co-wrote her first book, The Blue Feather Escape, at 16 years old with her Dad, Jonathan Stahnke. Combining her creativity with her Dad’s reminds me that when families work together, linking up for a common goal, the end result can be marvelous! We applaud Naomi’s first published work and how she incorporated family.
The Blue Feather Escape is available from westbowpress.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com. It is a children’s historical fiction about a family of Bible smugglers in the 15th century. Currently, Naomi and her Dad are working on the prequel to “The Blue Feather Escape”, a teen suspense novel titled “To Be Free”, and a children’s picture book!
We asked Naomi to write a special piece for this blog and share her passion about writing and shining for God. Thank you Naomi for sharing your light with us!
“A Special Gift” by Naomi Stahnke
Darkness. That was the world Passion was born into, the only world she had ever known. On every side the blackness surrounded her and pressed on her and pulled at her very soul. But she was not part of it, because God had delivered her. Now, she was part of the light. Or, at least, she had always thought she was.
Passion looked down at the microphone in her hand, then at all the flashlights around her. Why? Why had God given her this, when only light would shatter the darkness? Who had ever heard of destroying darkness with sound?
Beside Passion, another girl stared in disbelief at the pen in her hand. A little ways away,
someone was handed a shovel. Another girl got a sword; someone else got a basket. Most of them took one look at their “gift” and tossed it to the ground.
Again, Passion glared at the mic in her hand, then at the darkness. Flashlights shone all around her, pushing the darkness aside. Her grip loosened on the object in her fingers, and it began to slip toward the ground. But then, He smiled at her, nodding reassuringly. Passion shrugged; it was worth a try. She lifted the microphone to her lips, and sang…
Ok, that all, folks!
“Wait!” I hear you saying, “Where’s the rest of the story?!” My answer? You get to write it. (Mwahhaha!) Now, before you roll your eyes because you’ve been told this a zillion times before, let me ask you something. What would happen if each of us took that weird, random object that God gave to us and actually used it?
Hi, my name is Naomi, and I am a seventeen-year-old published author. When God gave me my dad’s unfinished children’s manuscript, I was elated! I was thinking, “A book? I get to write a real book? I get to be published? Yeeeeessssss!” But I hadn’t thought that way forever. For most of my life, I was thinking, “Wait, what did you just say? Write? Oh! I thought you said torture chamber!” Don’t laugh, it’s true! (Ok, fine, you can giggle).
The point is, God gave me a gift for putting words together and I looked at it just like Passion looked at her microphone. Eventually, though, God convinced me to give the gift a try. And let me tell you, it was a blast! Not easy, but fun, just the same. My dad had written down a fantastic historical fiction story based on a story his dad told him before I was born. But God had decided to give my dad the gift of storytelling, not the gift of actually writing. So I went through and re-worded almost every single sentence in the
whole book. Looking back, I’m amazed to see how many special moments and opportunities have come from just that one act of following God. He really poured out blessings on my “microphone” and used it to glorify his name!
So I encourage you to pick up that weird, random object God is handing you and shine!
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