This is the beginning of a New Year.  It is also my very first blog post.  I wandered along with the dog and wondered what I would blog about.  What would my focus be?  This title came to mind,  "Redemptive fiction, psalms, stories and whatnot."  Pretty broad.  There is room for the awesome pancake recipe that is good for diabetics with heart disease.  There is room to share some Psalms paraphrased in modern language.  I can ramble on about the latest movie watched or a book read.

Most of the movies and books that touch us deeply have a redemptive theme.  I watched three movies over the Christmas season: The Hobbit, the Hunger Games, and the Book Thief.  Each of these movies had the theme of characters making a sacrifice for the good of others.  Bilbo goes on a quest to help the dwarves regain their home from an evil dragon.  Katniss is willing to die for her sister when she takes her place in the hunger games.  Then she is willing to give her life so that Peeta might live. In the Book Thief several characters make a sacrifice for the sake of others.  Rosa and Hans hide the Jew Max Vandenburg and share their very limited rations with him. "I've nearly starved us to feed him," Rosa says "I am not going to see him die now."  Max chooses to leave their home when it becomes too dangerous for them to hide him. And Liesel is determined to remember her friend Max always, when fond remembrance of a Jewish friend is a subversive act.

Redemptive fiction is fiction I care about.  It is fiction worth writing and blogging about.  Redemptive fiction inspires us to live lives that matter and make a difference in the world.