Who's Your Advocate?

I've been caught up in reading series novels lately. It seems like every novel suggested by my book club or that I just pick up to read has two or three or 18 sequels. And yes, I could not read the sequels, but my curiosity gets the best of me and I just gotta know how the story ends!

I'm currently reading the last of Stieg Larson's trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'm enjoying this story line, although it has been hard to read and remember all the names and places sometimes since they are all Swedish. Kinda reminds me of Betty White in Golden Girls and all her friends back home whose names ended with "flugen".  Anyway, one interesting word that I've noticed throughout this series is "advokat"...I guess that is the Swedish spelling of the word advocate. Or maybe we just got the word from them. I don't know.

(Yes, I have an English degree.)

(No, I don't know the etymology of every word out there.)

(But I do know how to use the word etymology.)

At any rate, I've surmised that the Swedish use this word for lawyer, because every lawyer in the story is given the title Advokat. According to www.dictionary.com, the definition of the English word advocate is "a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause, etc; a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; an intercessor; a person who pleads the cause of another in a court of law."

Just as the main character in Larson's novel has an Advokat to plead her case in court, we also have an Advocate to plead ours. Hebrews 7 tells us that "because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." And Romans 8 tells us even when we don't know what to pray for,  "the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."

So although I don't yet know how things turn out for Larson's character, I do know how things will go for me. I have a Savior who is willing to plead my case before the Father. God has given us His Spirit to intercede for us as well. I don't have to rely on another human being or on my own ability to tell my own story. God already knows it...and He's already got our advocates in place working on our behalf.

Boy, am I glad I didn't have to wait until the end of my story is written to find that out!