Why This Verse?
“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”—Matthew 13:52
For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen the world through analogies. I notice patterns in behavior. I find connections in circumstances. I see metaphors woven through everyday life. This is how my mind works. As a writer, it shapes everything I create.
This verse captures something essential about my approach to storytelling. Those ancient scribes were experts in their tradition. They were charged with preserving and teaching what mattered most to their people. The best of them didn’t just guard the old. The ones who became disciples brought it into conversation with the new, illuminating both.
I do the same. My “old” is what I’ve accumulated over decades. I served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service. I spent over thirty years as a forensic investigator. I learned hard lessons at crime scenes and in courtrooms. My “new” is what years of studying scripture still reveals about those experiences. Faith became the lens that reinterpreted my past. It showed me patterns I’d missed. It revealed errors I’d made in my life. It exposed connections between justice and mercy I hadn’t seen.
A small example: when training a new investigator, I explained how applying bright side-lighting brings fingerprints and fibers from invisible to visible. What was always there becomes obvious under the right illumination. The principle stuck with her. But so did my observation that truth often works this way—hidden until the right light reveals it. Spiritually, I find there is no brighter light than Christ. Every technical detail became a potential window into additional evidence.
That’s the “treasure” I draw from. Every story and every character I create, draws from both sources. I draw on the gritty realities of humanity’s capacity for darkness and the courage of those who combat it. I combine that with what I’ve learned about grace, justice, and redemption. Whether through fiction or non-fiction, I’m bringing out things new and old. I attempt to let them work together to explore what’s true about being human.
If that approach interests you, I hope you’ll read on.