Author James L. Rubart’s latest tale, Book of Days, follows hero Cameron Vaux as the man quests to find God's Book of Days. Learn about the author's personal emotional journey that inspired him to create this new mystery.

Do you take photos? Me too. Why do we fill our phones and flash cards with thousands of pictures of our family and friends, of landscapes, of birthdays and holidays and the events that shape our lives? 

Because something inside us wants to remember.

Something inside us longs to capture that moment of joy or breakthrough or tenderness. I believe it’s because of a universal desire to record our lives, to somehow keep the ravages of time from eroding our most treasured moments. 

It was around 2000 that my family realized my dad had started losing his most treasured moments. As parts of his mind slipped away, it only caused the joy inside him to be released in fuller measure—that part was a gift. Even so, the pain of watching him walk down the path of the long-goodbye was wrenching.

As the disease progressed I started to wonder. Where were his memories going? Were they mist? Or were they being recorded somewhere. When I read a line in the Bible that said, “All my days were recorded before one of them came into being,” it was a huge comment. I came to believe my dad’s memories had been recorded and would be returned to him when he crossed over into eternity. God had recorded them in his book.

That led me to think, “What if God’s book could be found on earth? What if we could see our future? Would we want to? And if we saw it, could we change it? What if someone had to find God’s Book of Days or they would lose everything? And what if they weren’t the only ones after the book? Out of those questions Book of Days was born. 

It’s an amazing gift that I was able to write a story that honors my dad, and even uses many of the lines he used to say to me in the last years of his battle with Alzheimer’s. To know I’ve recorded a part of his story in print is a thrill.

If the mind of someone you know is melting away, my desire is you embrace the idea that no noble or joyful event, no selfless action, no moment of wonder, not one of the treasured moments you shared together is lost.

And while we still live, that we would consider the kind of lives we are recording.

- James L. Rubart

You can pick up your own copy of Book of Days in stores now.

Tags: Inspirational