Q&A - Unafraid

Which was the hardest of these books to write?

The hardest book to write in these series was Unafraid, about Mary. So much has been written about her, and of course, throughout church history so much has been made of her that it was not easy to see her afresh. Yet there’s not really much said about Mary in Scripture itself. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that all the traditions were developed. In order to write about her, I had to set everything aside and try to see her in her humanity, see her only as the Bible portrayed her, and that was a challenge.

I think that making more out of Mary than the Bible does actually lessons the impact of her life. The fact that she was a very human mother, with all her ambitions for Jesus to reveal himself as the Messiah her people had long awaited, speaks more powerfully of her character, faith, obedience, and desire to do God’s will. It makes her presence and faith at the cross all the more amazing.

Unveiled, about Tamar, was also difficult in a different way. Because the commentaries said it was about sexual issues, and I knew Dr. Taylor at Tyndale was especially sensitive to how such issues were portrayed in fiction, I originally wrote it in a way that I thought would be "acceptable." I used a "he said—she said" sort of format. When I turned it in, they said it was all right, but not my usual style. I asked, "Can I write it the way I really want to write it?" They said yes.

By then I realized the story was not about sexual issues, but about Tamar's motivation in what she did, about her hope for a future, about her honor and integrity toward her role as wife, about her desire to have a child to preserve the line of Judah. God blessed her not with one child, but twins! The Lord used this Canaanite woman to bring Judah to his knees and change his character. Through Tamar, God kept Judah's line going, and that line led to the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

What made you choose these five women?

These were the women in the lineage of Christ from the first chapter of Matthew. The Bible makes a big deal of a person's lineage. When you look at the women in Jesus' lineage, you see amazing stories of God's grace. Each story acts out an aspect of the Christian life: Tamar is a woman of hope; Rahab, a woman of faith; Ruth, a woman of love; Bathsheba, a woman who received unlimited grace; and Mary, a woman of obedience. The Lord used these ordinary women facing extraordinary risks to bring forth the Savior of the world.

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