Madeleine L'Engle died on Friday at 88. I think it disturbs me that she died in a nursing home. After all, she gave so much to so many people through her unflinchingly honest books that I cannot help but see her surrounded by those whose lives changed by encountering her work. Perhaps she was.

If you have not read A Wrinkle In Time, then you might not recognize her work. But then again, you might have read her plays, her journals, or her musings on Christianity. She was certainly a prolific writer.

One of her books, The Arm of the Starfish, is an all-time favorite of mine...for several reasons.

In the book, nothing turns out quite as you would expect. After all, one of the main characters is murdered unexpectedly. It is that character, L'Engle would say, who appeared one afternoon in a hotel room as she was writing her novel, much to her own surprise. She ended up having to rewrite the first third of the novel just to include Joshua. But, she will also tell you, she didn't give it a second thought because he belonged in the story she was trying tell.

In that story, the teenage female lead character is devastated by her friend's murder. But she feels the most egregious act is her father's willingness to help the murder's daughter when she is injured.

Her father's response is truly a life lesson:

If you are going to care about the fall of the sparrow, you cannot pick or choose who the sparrow is going to be.

Thank you. Madeleine, for all the memories, for all the times you challenged me, for all the times your stories were sanctuary from that which was going on in my own life. You stood for truth and never shied away from it. How wonderful is it that after a life long labor in His service, you are now resting in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.