The Real Hoot Owl Hollow

The real Hoot Owl Hollow, 1975

"Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever! Amen!" (Heb. 13:20-21)

         I'm bursting with excitement over my next storybook in the making. Although the book, Hoot Owl Hollow, is fictitious, our friend, Liz, lives in the real Hoot Owl Hollow tucked beneath the North Georgia Mountains near the small town of Hiwassee. Years ago, I first laid eyes on this lovely cove as a college student with my boyfriend's (later husband's) family.

            

Me in one of the many mountain creeks, 1975

               Phillip was enamored with the fresh water spring piped out of the mountains.

Phillip's niece

       In the picture below of my Phillip drinking from the spring, you see a trailer in Liz's cow pasture where her visitors stayed. (In the book, Andi rents the trailer from Nonie Baskin.)

        Forty years ago as a college student, the Lord was equipping me to do a small work that only recently came to fruition: writing  Christian storybooks for families. But in forty years on the back side of a desert in Midian, God prepared Moses to do a great work: deliver an entire nation from slavery!

       Hebrews chapter 13 teaches that our God, the One who raised Jesus from the dead, will indeed equip His disciples to do His will and accomplish that which pleases Him if we remain devoted to Him. Oswald Chambers once said, "One life totally devoted to God of more value to Him than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit."

O Christian, stay devoted to Jesus and just watch to see what valuable works God will accomplish through you for His glory!