Jones: We have such hopeful news to share! We are more than creatures made by a creative God— we are also creatures held close by a God of extravagant love. Broken as we are, as broken as our situations are, transformation still happens. He heals and He helps. What another writes can help us glimpse how something new always appears on the horizon of God’ s grace.
And if we could experience such love overflowing from our lives into those of others? A new conviction of our being treasured by God could push out the competition and striving that make it harder to live with— much less love— the people next door. The space inside us feels bigger, more spacious, more able to make room for others and their failings. We discover how we give more to others than we ever could on our own.
And so what might seem merely spiritual becomes wonderfully practical, working itself out in the scenes of an everyday life. In all the brokenness, we feel something like the mountain sunshine air of a warmly personal God in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This God invites us, welcomes us, and then sends us back into a lonely world that is aching for the very love we have begun to discover. CRA
Jeff Crosby is the president and CEO of ECPA, the trade association of Christian publishing, and has spent nearly four decades working in the world of words as a bookseller, publisher and author. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including CRUX, Conversations Journal, Books & Culture, Urban Faith and Living Lutheran. He is the editor and compiler of Days of Grace Through the Year( a collection of writings by Lewis B. Smedes) and the author of World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading. He lives in the western suburbs of Chicago. www. christianretailassociation. org / CRA today 33