Foreword

There are books that explain Scripture, and there are books that invite you to enter it.
This is the latter.

Most of us have been trained to read the Bible for answers—what to do, what to believe, how to live. And while Scripture certainly speaks to all of that, Margins: Where God Begins gently invites us to something deeper: to slow down, to look again, and to wonder.

Steve Wilkins asks an unusual question—not what the Bible says, but where God is before it says anything at all.

In a world obsessed with speed, clarity, and outcomes, this book draws our attention to the spaces we usually overlook: the pauses, the silence, the waiting, the margins. Those places where we assume nothing is happening. Those places we rush past on our way to something more important.

And then, quietly but firmly, Steve reminds us that God has always done His best work there.

What makes this book compelling is not merely its theological insight—though it is rich with Scripture and grounded in the grand narrative of redemption—but its honesty. These pages are not written from abstraction, but from lived experience. From seasons of loss and stillness. From long hours in the Word. From a soul that has learned, sometimes painfully, that God is not reacting to our lives—He is revealing Himself through them.

As you read, you will notice something: this book does not strain to persuade. It does not shout. It does not rush you toward conclusions. It trusts the reader. More importantly, it trusts God.

The central idea—that before the first word of Genesis was written, God already knew the entire story—is not new theology. But here, it is explored with fresh eyes and a tender heart. Steve leads us to see that the God who knew the end from the beginning also knows us—fully, intimately, eternally. That our lives are not a series of interruptions to His plan, but threads intentionally woven into it.

Again and again, you will be invited to consider a liberating truth:

• What if the places you’ve labeled as delays are actually divine appointments?
• What if the silence you fear is sacred?
• What if the margin is not where God is absent—but where He is most present?

This book does not promise easy answers. It offers something better: perspective. Peace. Rest. A renewed trust in the God who sees the whole tapestry when all we can see are loose threads.

Perhaps most importantly, Margins: Where God Begins gently reorients how we see ourselves. We are not projects God is still fixing. We are not mysteries He is trying to solve. We are not stories waiting to be finished.

In Christ, it is finished.

What remains is our awakening to that reality.

As you read, I encourage you not to rush. Let the words linger. Sit with the questions. Pay attention to what stirs in you. This book is not meant to be conquered—it is meant to be inhabited.

And when you reach the end, you may find that you haven’t arrived somewhere new at all. You may simply realize what has been true all along:

You were already in the margin.
And God was already there.