Ever since I was a kid I have always been excited about gazing at and studying maps. And that love for maps has not gone away as I’ve grown up.
True confession time: sometimes I just make maps just to make a new world. It is so exciting drawing a new world on the paper from nothing. So much of the story and history can come from simply drawing the landscape out. What a name of a town might mean or how it came to be, are towns and villages clustered together or far apart and what does that mean about the government and how people interact? How tall or wide are the mountain ranges, do people live in them or on top of them? So much story can be realized from just drawing the map.
Why I love maps really comes from reading the Bible. I always flipped to the back to look at the map of what the world was like in ancient times. To see the paths of the Israelites or Paul’s missionary journeys. The maps were where the story came alive to me. During those early years, that is really what connected me to the stories. I would study only the maps. I would look at where cities were located, roads that went around them, what path the subject of the map took.
The Bible was my basis for my love for maps, and without it I’m not sure if I would be this into maps.
Stay tuned for more map content coming!
What started your love for maps? Was it from a book or movie? Or was it from the love of being outdoors or love of traveling? Or maybe it was something else?
Sound off in the comments.
J.E.Rowland 