Oh My

In a keynote address at a Christian writers conference I attended at Mount Hermon several years ago, Robert Benson (www.robertbensonwriter.com), author of Between the Dreaming and The Coming True and the brand new Digging In: Tending to Life in Your Own Backyard, tells the story of his visit to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. After their eyes adjusted to the darkness inside, he and his wife realized they were “standing in the presence of as much art as we were ever going to see again in our entire lives and perhaps all that we would ever need.” His wife whispered, “Oh my.” He said, “Oh my—that someone would do something like this just for the glory of God.”

Even though he and his wife didn’t want to leave the beauty that brought tears to their eyes and lumps to their throats, they caught a plane to take them home again. Robert says, “If I am to do anything just for the glory of God, it will have to be at my house, in my studio, with my dreams, with my blank pieces of paper, and with my sentences.”

This week at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS, www.christianretailshow.com) I’m going to be interviewing Robert about his sentences—about writing and art and storytelling. I’m looking forward to seeing him again and to featuring him on the blog very soon.
I’ll post again on Thursday.