To the Michaels of this world, I salute you.
I sat at my desk after emerging from a long writing session for my next ‘New York’ novel, a story about falling love in with the mentally ill. It’s an especially touching story because in so many ways we’re at least all mentally challenged.
Looking through some posts on the Gathering, I came across a whole string of posts by people who received Gathering Tickets as gifts. Stories of parents taking their son or daughter on a vacation centered around the Gathering. Christmas gifts, birthdays. Graduation gift.
A ticket to the Gathering as a graduation gift.
I don’t know what happened to me in that moment, but I lost it. Tears flooded my eyes and my throat knotted up. I stared at the name of this one poster (I’ll call him Michael) who was receiving a ticket to the Gathering as his graduation present and all I could think was: He’s me. This kid is me, twenty years ago. Story informs his world. Michael’s on the outside of the bubble, peering in, like so many of us. He’s not in the box. He sees the world differently because of his unusual intelligence or gifting and he’s found a Circle of people who have also escaped the box.
For his graduation he asks for a ticket to the Gathering. To celebrate his crowning achievement he was coming to the Gathering, a celebration of our making, his peers and I. In some small but significant way I, Ted Dekker, held his achievement in my hands!
I grabbed the phone and called Kevin, who’s is charge of the event. “It’s for Michael’s Graduation!” I cry. “We’ve got to blow it out! This party is for all the Michaels of the world, and I want the celebration to be worthy of this boy.”
I tell you I felt like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Bring the fatted calf, put a ring on his finger, sound the trumpets; we’re going to throw a party. They’re all coming home! They’re coming out of their hiding and crossing the highways and byways to connect with a world that make’s theirs turn.
And all the while all I could think was, “More. Michael deserves more!”
The Gathering is for Michael and Susan and Kirsten and whoever else is coming. This is their event. But it’s also my event, because I am like them. We share something in common that is largely shunned by this world. A bond ripped from the pages of the Books of History. Our world has been shaped by Justin and his call to the Great Romance. I too need to bond with those who answer that call. I too choose to cross the land for the Gathering, because I too need to remember.
So once a year we will gather and join arms and remember our own history. This is our time to shed our skin, to step out of our shell, to bond on a level that can only be found deep in the folds of story.
Now I will tell you what has not yet been said.
This year the Gathering will be completely different from last years event. From the time the doors open until we go home late that night, exhausted, we are going to relive the Circle Series. We’re going to be transported through time to a world which retells our own redemptive history. To the annual Gathering deep in the desert, written about in the first chapter of Green, complete with the actual music from that Gathering.
We’re bringing in the most talented interpretive dance troupe in Nashville, the very best actors and story tellers, a master illusionist, lights and music, myself and of course most importantly, you, and we’re going to remember! From the Sage with the long beard who steps out on stage to start the story to the very last dance, retelling the great love of Justin, we are going to dive deep into another world that will stay with us always.
Michael, if you are reading, you will cherish your graduation! I swear it if breaks my bank. Because you and I are one. The rest may not understand us, the world my think that we are strange, our parents may not fully grasp our longing… But the Great Romance calls us and we will answer Justin’s call.
Michael, I salute you.
Dive Deep.
P.S. I want everyone to have the opening chapter of Green because it paints the picture of what the Gathering is and what we’ll all celebrate together. Here it is friends. Download it. Read it. Dive into it.
your books are like home to me…i grew up reading as a child (& “day-dreaming) moved on to a lifestyle orchestrated from the pit of hell (sorry for the drama..) behaved worthless because i was treated as such…came to know the Lord in 1988 & He started working on me from the inside-out.I realized who I was made for but my eyes(& heart changed) as i started reading about Thomas Hunter…the colored forest, the Great Romance…that is what I want. The realization that Jesus paid that price for me..& He wants to heal me completely & love me forever. (can’t say that out loud but It is my hearts desire..to be the woman of God that He created me to be…your books, Ted…what a gift. they inspire me to search HIS heart and make my home wherever HE resides…to dive into the pool and drown with Him and others that Love Him too. I won’t be at the gathering this year but maybe next…If I can. but i love that Michael will have a life-changing graduation at The Gathering, & love that your heart shows such love and mercy. blessing to you and your family. you have touched my life for Christ & stirred up desire for my “forever”
I really don’t know where to start and a big reason for me even leaving a comment is honestly just a desperate attempt to put myself out there and find out more about myself. My life has deffinately gone down hill in recent years…I honestly can’t believe the things I’ve done or the things I thought and think of everyday, but I know the Lord will always be there to help…even though sometimes it’s terribly hard to get on my knees and pray…but you are such a good role model it makes me look disgusting. I thank you so much for helping me through very hard times by just saying some of my own thoughts. I always feel so alone because no one thinks like me, no one feels like me, no one I know is even close to how I am. I just can’t relate to anyone, not in my family, not at school, no one. And reading what you right…I just have to stop and fathom how amazing it is that someone as wierd as me with the same thoughts and an amazing heart is actually out there and earned the chance to express his thoughts when I’m still here in my house thinking everyday non stop, it’s all I do, so much that writing may slow me down sometimes, and I think and think…i stray away from Christ a bit sometimes…I never stop believing though. I pray for him to banish these wrong thoughts and whats in me…but i always tend to venture off bacause of have this insane need to understand things from both point of views, outside and inside, which is why i have become so interested with mental illnesses such as psychopathy, sociopathy, depression, and others…gah! I’m rambling so much this shouldn’t even be a comment! So I’m just gonna leave it at you are a HUGE part of my life, you guide me through many bad times and help me stay with Christ and you DEFINATELY have me contemplate about so many things! That’s why I love your books, they give me so many things to think about.
God bless you, you’re a good man.
Devin C. Farrell
Wow… Ted, thanks so much. I know you wrote this blog because Michael’s story touched your heart, and I don’t want to take that away from him. My little brother and my grandparents are coming to The Gathering this year, because I’m graduating high school. They were already taking me to Las Vegas and California, and I told them I’d rather go to The Gathering than stop by the grand canyon on the way home. So we are. We’re cutting my senior trip to California short by a few days so that we can stop back by Louisiana and pick up my little brother on the way to The Gathering. Can’t wait! Ted, you’ve been an inspiration to an aspiring Christian writer.
YO DEKKER, MY FRIENDS AND I MADE A VIDEO ABOUT YOUR BOOK, CHOSEN, FOR OUR SCHOOL NOVEL PROJECT. IT IS ON YOUTUBE, UNDER Chosen school project. CHECK IT OUT, IT’S AWESOME.YOU ROCK!
wow. what a moving entry!! thanks for sharing something so personal. and for sharing Green!! i heard about the gathering through the newsletter, and tried to go, but couldnt afford it int eh end. it was soo devastating!! but then i realized that its not for this year, but there is next. so, in keeping with good spirits, i am so happy to be able to… cheat, in a way, and read part of Green!!! thanks again for sharing!!
I’m a little late to be reading the beginning of green…thanks for posting it. Back in the day my church used to have gatherings that were similar to the description given…wow One body serving one God…there is nothing like it.
i luv his writin! he iz really talented!right now i’m reading the lost books. i have just started this week & i’m on book two! i am hooked! God bless Ted!
Dear Ted,
You are my all time favorite author and it is SO HARD to get a hold of you to ask if you would PLEASE send me an autograph of you! I’ve looked everywhere for addresses and whatnot, and so I thought I would try this. And to tell you how wonderfully talented you are and how you have changed the lives of the people you influence through your books to change their lives and try and be better. You are simply amazing and talented and totally awesome! It would be the coolest thing to get an autograph from you, to go along with the pendant and poster and books I bought. It would be a dream come true! Nonetheless, you are and always will be my favorite, and I look forward to your next works and hearing from you!
Your Fan,
Alyssa Richins
alyssa_r_15@hotmail.com