Who is Elijah?

I woke up this morning with one thing on my todo list - go get a ladder.

A bad storm passed through the camp a couple days ago and a large branch had fallen on the camper. This was at 8AM so I decided to make a cup of coffee before heading to the store. One thing led to another and by the time 9 am came around I found myself outside under the awning in the lounge chair with a notebook and pen staring out at the lake. I sipped my coffee and began a writing assignment my mentor suggested.

I was trying to delve deeper into the character’s world I was creating for my script. He suggested writing 99 questions about the character’s world, or even just 10. Little did he know I had already written the first question weeks prior - Who is Josiah? Josiah was a placeholder name I had chosen for my main character’s love interest, although I knew what purpose he was to serve in the story, I didn’t know him as a person. I knew no one in my personal life to reference, so he was completely the work of my imagination.

This is when the writing process gets interesting and challenging. This is when you get to meet different parts of your own psyche. I’d have to picture who I would be as a man, how I would talk, what my interests and background would be, how others would perceive me, as this character. I first explored his family background and his relationship with his mother and father, and who taught him his truths of the world.

The script I am writing has a theme of exploring spiritual realms and primordial beings so naturally I questioned what his spiritual beliefs would be. On the 9th question I wrote, “Where does he find mercy?” and the pen bled. Note, a pen has never bled on me while writing before. I followed it with a more direct question for number 10, “Who is his God?” My left eye twitched which means auspiciousness, I knew these were the right questions now.

I continued writing more questions before taking a break. I sat up with posture in the lounge chair, set the pen on the page and raised my chin so that it was parallel with the ground. I lifted my head all the way up towards the sun and took in its rays with a deep sense of gratitude for the day and its sunshine. As I stared around the edges of the morning sun, I couldn’t help but thank it for everything it had provided me, guidance, protection, wisdom, courage and trust. I shed a tear thanking God, the sun, the universe, the light energy and the highest version of my name for getting me to this moment in my life. It had been long overdue and over worked.

I decided to get up and move my body and clean out some things in my storage space I had been putting off for a week. I needed to find my stash of green tea packets, dermablades and my microphone in case I was going to record music later. I opened the door and realized, maybe if I just step up on the ledge of the door opening I could reach the branch without having to go to the store for a ladder. I stepped up, reached, and with ease removed the branch without the need for a ladder. Relieved that was one less thing on my to do list for this Sunday. I began digging through my storage space bringing inside my microphone, microphone reflector and a few other things until I could get to the tote on bottom. I opened it to find my bible sitting right on top of everything. I took it inside and placed it on my bed. I dug through my other books and old journals, finding the dermablades and even an old tripod I thought I left at my parents house in California, but still no tea bags.

Later that evening the afternoon storm had made for an early night and I was cleaning the trailer before settling into bed, still ruminating on where I could have put those tea bags. I really wanted a cup of tea to help detox my body especially after having some icecream after dinner. Determined, I started emptying out the cabinet above the kitchen sink and all the way in the back inconspicuously hidden in an old grocery bag was my stash of peppermint and green tea. I had never been so excited for tea before! I started my E-kettle right away and set out my mug. I pulled my bible from my bed and sat down on my yoga mat waiting for the water to get ready to steep.

I opened the bible, closed my eyes and flipped until it felt right. I let my hands guide me to whatever passage was meant for me. When I looked down at the page the name Asa stuck out, (1 Kings 15:17). I decided to start from the beginning of the chapter when I noticed a faint highlighter marking bleeding through from the page behind it. I turned the page and realized Chapter 17 and the name “Elijah the Tishbite” had been highlighted from 4 years ago right before I had started my journey in moving to Park City, Utah.

I asked myself this time who is Elijah? I read the 17th Chapter of 1 Kings and searched youtube to see if I could find any videos explaining the significance of who this man was in the bible.

A couple of days earlier, I was watching my daily tarot card readings and the channel host said the number 66 would be significant, that a message would be revealed that answers many questions. As I scrolled through the videos one had 665K views. I clicked on it, and noticed it had been uploaded in 2022, the same year I started writing the script, by a user called Grace Digital Network. I just recently got a meaningful tattoo that says “Gift of Grace” on my back shoulder, so it really felt like something was telling me this message is meant for you and may have been meant for you 4 years ago, when you first were called to write this script.

The video began, “Who is Elijah? The name literally translates to “The Lord is my God.” I gasped to myself completely forgetting about the tea I was making, I rushed to my notebook I had been writing questions in to reread number 10 "Who is his God?". At that moment I knew, Elijah was the character I was writing. Elijah the Tishbite, a name I had highlighted 4 years ago when this script was only an idea, this is the person I have been trying to get to know deeper not only in this story but perhaps my personal life as well.