An Unexpected Award

A few weeks ago, I received an unexpected email form my publisher: Illuminary had won the Tome Society Award.

I admit, my first thought was, This must be a scam.

I had never heard of this award or this organization. But sure enough, when I checked them out, they appeared to be a legitimate nonprofit promoting literacy in schools through clean, age-appropriate fiction. A neat little program actually.

But for a book to be selected for their list, it has to be submitted for consideration. Neither my publisher nor I had entered Illuminary. Which meant someone else had to find and nominate my book for me.

That was astounding enough. But the timing made it even more significant.

In the week preceding I had been struggling with the area of results. I know I need to trust God’s provision there as much as in money and time. But many days I feel like I see very little fruit from the work I do, in writing and otherwise.

When that email arrived, however, it felt like little tap on the shoulder from God. It was if He was saying, “I have this under control. I can do what wish, bring about whatever I wish, and I don’t need your help to do it.”

So, yes, Illuminary won an unexpected award, and that is cool and exciting. But even more, I was reminded of a very important truth: I can trust God is at work, even when I can’t see it.

And that was the sweetest reward of all.