Who Is Miguel?

Every adventure story needs extraordinary moments.

But it also needs ordinary ones.

Before Mateo ever stepped into Bible history, he was a twelve-year-old boy living in the mountains of Nicaragua. He had a family. He went to school. He helped with chores.

And he had a best friend named Miguel.

When I began writing Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word, Miguel didn't need to be mysterious. He didn't need to know ancient secrets. He didn't need to understand what was waiting for Mateo inside an abandoned church.

His purpose was much simpler.

Mateo needed a friend.

Someone His Own Age

Mateo has some remarkable people in his life.

Doña Rosa is his grandmother, but she is also a source of wisdom, faith, and quiet understanding.

Father Tomás becomes someone Mateo can turn to when the impossible things happening around him become too much to understand on his own.

But neither of them can be Miguel.

Mateo needed someone his own age.

Someone to sit beside at school. Someone to talk with, laugh with, and occasionally get into a little trouble with. Someone who knew Mateo simply as Mateo—not as the boy Verbum Aeternum had apparently been waiting for.

That became Miguel.

And as often happens when I write, a character who began with a fairly simple purpose didn't stay quite so simple.

The Friend on the Outside

For much of Mateo's early journey, Miguel knows that something is happening with his friend.

He just doesn't know what.

Mateo disappears.

Mateo returns with stories that would be difficult for anyone to believe.

And somewhere in the mountains sits an abandoned church that seems to hold answers Mateo isn't quite ready to share.

That created an interesting relationship between the two boys.

Mateo had entered a world Miguel couldn't see.

But Miguel was still his friend in the world he came home to.

Perhaps that was more important than I realized when I first created him.

Then Miguel Met Verbum

Eventually, keeping those two worlds completely separate became impossible.

Miguel entered the abandoned church with Mateo.

For the first time, he saw the enormous ancient Bible his friend had been trying to explain.

His reaction was wonderfully simple:

“It's so big!”

Mateo's answer was equally simple.

“I told you so.”

The two boys approached Verbum together.

Then the pages began to move.

They turned faster and faster until suddenly they stopped.

Miguel sees Verbum Aeternum for himself for the first time, with Mateo and Father Tomás beside him.

A verse began to glow:

“Therefore, comfort one another and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:11 LLV

Miguel stared at the words.

“Whoa! Look at what it says. What can it mean?”

Father Tomás was there with them.

But this time, something was different.

Mateo was no longer the only boy standing before Verbum Aeternum.

Miguel had entered that part of his world.

More Than Mateo's Sidekick

I never wanted Miguel to become simply the friend who follows the hero around.

Mateo's journey belongs to Mateo.

Verbum was waiting for him.

The extraordinary experiences that follow are part of something Mateo is only beginning to understand.

Miguel has a different role.

He is the friend who helps keep Mateo connected to ordinary life.

He doesn't have to understand everything Mateo experiences to stand beside him.

He doesn't have to solve the mysteries.

He doesn't have to become another Mateo.

He only has to be Miguel.

And perhaps that is why the verse Verbum showed the boys fits them so well.

Comfort one another.

Build each other up.

Those aren't instructions for grand adventures.

They're instructions for friendship.

The Friend Who Walks Beside Him

When I first created Miguel, I don't think I understood how important he might eventually become.

I simply knew Mateo needed a friend.

But characters have a way of growing as their stories grow.

Miguel became curious.

He began noticing things.

He began asking questions.

And eventually, he found himself standing beside his best friend in an abandoned mountain church, staring at a Bible unlike anything he had ever seen.

Long before Miguel understood what was happening to Mateo, however, he was already doing exactly what Verbum would one day tell the two boys to do.

He was building his friend up.

Doña Rosa helps guide Mateo.

Father Tomás helps him understand.

Verbum Aeternum opens a door to a world Mateo could never have imagined.

But Miguel does something equally necessary.

He walks beside him.

Mateo may be the one Verbum Aeternum was waiting for.

But even a boy chosen for an extraordinary journey shouldn't have to walk through ordinary life alone.

That's where Miguel comes in.