Inside “The Lion of God - Nikki (Part 1)
Inside The Lion of God, Nikki Part 1
Creator’s Commentary
From Heaven to Earth
In the Preface, we were introduced to Ariel, an angel with a troubled past, and given just a glimpse into a supernatural past that we can hardly imagine.
In The Lion of God, there are two theaters. Two separate worlds. There is the spiritual world that Ariel lives in, then there is the physical world that we humans occupy.
So, now we leave Heaven behind. We come down to Earth, and we meet Nikki. A forty-year-old woman driving home from work on a rainy afternoon. Nothing particularly remarkable about that. Or is there?
Nikki
When I first began writing this story, I named this character Abigail. But later the name Abigail just didn’t seem to fit the woman I was creating.
The name Abigail had a Red Clay Strays, “She comes from silver spoon, golden rule, Christian school, Never missed Sunday church” vibe.
I needed a girl with more of a, “blue collar, low dollar. Out here where concrete meets old red dirt” background.
Nikki felt a little rough around the edges. A woman with a potty mouth and a past. Someone who made a lot of questionable decisions along the way. A woman with a colorful story.
I wanted her to be human. Flawed. Vulnerable. Sometimes angry.
Happy Birthday, Nikki
She’s driving home from work in afternoon traffic. A light rain is falling, and the windshield wipers are beating out a slow, methodical rhythm. Just another day.
Her mind wanders. She thinks about her workday. About the conversations she’s had. She thinks about going home and what will be there when she arrives.
It’s her birthday. But she knows there won’t be a celebration waiting for her. No presents. Not even a birthday card.
What makes this particularly sad is that Nikki already knows. She’s already accepted it. She’s not expecting a surprise. She’s not wondering whether someone remembered. She already knows.
And there’s something profoundly sad about a person who no longer expects to be loved.
Yesterday’s Trash
There is a phrase in this chapter that tells us a great deal about Nikki.
“Yesterday’s trash.” That phrase captures her entire story.
That’s how she sees herself. Something nobody wants. Something to be used and thrown away.
Nikki doesn’t simply believe that her marriage has failed.
She believes she has failed. There’s an enormous difference. And that distinction matters to the story.
Because sometimes the deepest wounds aren’t the ones inflicted upon us. They’re the things we eventually come to believe about ourselves.
Nikki has been hurt physically and emotionally. But perhaps the greatest damage is what those experiences have done to her sense of worth.
She doesn’t simply feel unloved. She feels unlovable.
And those are two very different things.
It Happened in an Instant
Then everything changes. One moment Nikki is driving through the rain, lost in her thoughts. The next, she’s involved in a violent automobile accident.
There is no warning. No opportunity to prepare. No chance to reconsider the things she has said, the choices she has made, or the life she has lived.
I wanted the accident to happen suddenly. Because that’s often how life works.
We spend so much of our time thinking about yesterday and worrying about tomorrow that we forget how quickly everything can change today. I feel that. Too often I live in the past or live in the future and squander today. Nikki does that as well.
Nikki’s life is about to change in ways she cannot possibly imagine.
Completely Exposed
There is a moment in the emergency room that I consider particularly important.
Nikki is barely conscious. She’s bleeding. She’s in pain. She’s surrounded by strangers trying to save her life.
Then someone cuts away all her clothes. She lies there completely naked. On the surface, it’s simply part of an emergency medical procedure.
But I wanted that moment to represent something more.
Nikki has spent years carrying emotional wounds that nobody can see.
The shame. The rejection. The broken dreams. The belief that she isn’t good enough.
And now, in the most vulnerable moment of her life, she has absolutely nothing left to hide behind.
Everything has been stripped away. Her privacy. Her independence. Her control.
For a brief moment, Nikki is completely exposed. Not just physically. But emotionally.
The Last Heartbeat
The chapter ends with Nikki lying in the emergency room as the medical team desperately tries to save her life. Her blood pressure is falling. The alarms are sounding. And then, one by one, the sounds around her begin to fade. Until the only thing she can hear is the slowing rhythm of her own heartbeat.
Beep…….Beep.
Beep……………..Beep…………………………………………………………………….Beep
……………………………………
Everything goes black.
Is Nikki dead? Is she dying? Or is something else happening?
We’ll have to wait and see.
Something Bigger
There’s one more thing I want readers to consider.
Remember Ariel? The angel we met in the Preface?
He carries his own wounds. His own memories. His own sense of failure.
And now we’ve met Nikki. Two very different characters.
One supernatural. One human. Both wounded.
Both struggling with things they cannot seem to put behind them.
Is that simply a coincidence?
Or is there something more to their stories?
Perhaps the most important question isn’t what happened to Nikki.
Perhaps it’s why.
And perhaps, just perhaps, what Nikki believes is the end of her story is actually the beginning of something far greater.
Until next time.
The Lord is with you.
