My favorite book as a teenager was Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden.  I remember reading it 3 times, though I usually craved reading something new.

Recently, I’ve re-read the book to see if it really is any good.  I probably haven’t touched it in 10 years (realizing that I was only 16 ten years ago is reassuring that I’m not aging TOO fast…one of the boys at church told me the other day said, “Wait, you’re 26???  You look 30!”), so tastes change (not to mention all the books I’ve read since then have polished my tastes).

Well, I can definitely tell you I still think it’s a good book.

Though I’m in a different place than I was then, I can still see what attracted me to it.  Briefly, it’s a story about a small group of teenagers who are camping in the Bush of Australia as there nation is attacked, and everyone they know is rounded up at the fair grounds.  Throughout the entire book Ellie, the narrator, grapples with the bigger issues in life as she struggles with her new place in a world she never thought she’d live in (one example: she is placed in a kill-or-be-killed situation, and she’s shocked at how easy it was to make the choice).

I think that there’s something in all of us that whispers that there’s something bigger than ourselves.

Because there is, and that One has a name.  We’re made for something bigger than our petty little concerns…a reminder that I need more often than I’d like.

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