This great advice recently from Rachelle Gardner’s excellent blog: Focus on identifying your target audience. Who are you writing books for? Identify ONE PERSON in your life who represents your audience in terms of age, gender, lifestyle. Blog for her.

Oh, I so do that. But, I’m not telling who you are.

Instead, I will tell you, Dear Reader, how I was reminded again of this principle while I was reading the Gospel of St. John.

One of the most-quoted scriptures in the Bible is John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

In fact, I think we’ve printed that verse on so many tee shirts, mugs, and billboards it has lost some of its power. It has started sounding like a Christian cliché.

But, Jesus didn’t publish this on a sign post along the road to Jerusalem. He didn’t hand it out on papyrus tracts. He said these words to a person. One single, searching soul. The encounter is the stuff a great novel is made of:

Darkness has fallen. A respected Jewish leader slips out of his home and creeps through the silent city to find the Man from Nazareth. When they meet, Nicodemus pours out the questions burning in his heart. We see the pull of faith struggling with the pressure of position.The learned teacher grappling with a concept that defies nature and demands faith.

And, in that secret conversation, Jesus speaks the words that will become the global tag line for Christianity. Seeing these words as they were spoken to Nicodemus  changes things. Hearing them in the dark Jerusalem night brings back their power and their purpose.

Writing to one person does make a difference.