MatthewWuertz

            The first few pages came out as a third-person narrative, and I dreaded how the story was going. Nothing felt right; my narrator was useless. Then God blessed me with the thought to flip the story to first-person, something I had been afraid to do since my last failed attempt years ago. When I flipped to the first-person, however, I realized that I could add much more foreshadowing than I was doing previously, and the narration had much more passion and familiarity to it: like Klevtrìth was really telling his story, looking back on the significant events of his childhood.

            Originally, “First Son” was intended to be a stand-alone story with a few others to accompany it later, but when the editors at The Sword Review pointed out (and rightly so) that the story really didn’t work as it was, I knew I had to provide some closure. My solution was to write two additional stories rather than to try to add more pages to the existing story, and the editors were considerate enough to accept all three for publication.

            One of the main themes in “First Son” is that of adoption: namely, Narith being adopted by elves when there is nothing left of his family or town. He doesn’t pay anything to join the elves, nor could he. It is simply by their grace that he is allowed to become one of them, and though he doesn’t have pointed ears or their other attributes, they accept him as one of their own and even give him a new name: Klevtrìth, meaning ‘first son.’

            There is an adoption of this sort that we can all share in: that being an adoption as sons and daughters of God. This, too, is something offered by grace, not something that we could ever pay for. One person already paid that price for us. Jesus lived a perfect life, coming to Earth for the specific purpose of offering himself up as a sacrifice for all of our imperfections. If we choose to follow Christ, God dismisses all the bad things we’ve done over the years (and all that we will do in the future). God says to us in that moment, “You are my child.” All we have to do is ask.

            “'I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:18)

            “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galations 3:26)