My Location and My Books

America, the Beautiful: YOSEMITE National Park

I am spending a little over two weeks in California. I will be attending a staff conference next week in Yosemite, which will be a wonderful trek into nature. The rest of the time I will be able to visit with my family and see friends that I see all too seldom. Talking to them face to face will be such a blessing.

I also hope to make progress on my school work at the library at the university where my father works, and get through many of the books I am reading. 

I just finished “Atonement Child” by Francine Rivers which is a very compelling, thorough, and compassionate novel that discusses the issue of abortion from almost every single angle that people struggle with. The abortionist is a compassionate, do-good doctor who wants to atone for his sisters’ death from an illegal, botched abortion. The protagonist is a victim of rape, and her mother and grandmother both had abortions for different reasons. The economic insecurity, an oft cited justification for abortion is given its due consideration, as the protagonist is a broke college student with unsupportive parents, and no father in the picture. She is also deserted by her picture-perfect legalistic fiancé when she is raped and found to be pregnant. The story was compelling because it painted the issue from almost every angle and line of argument I have heard, and put a human face to everyone, including the abortionist. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has come into contact in any way, shape, or form, with the issue of abortion. I have learned so much about this issue since I have committed to praying to end abortion in our country, and it is all handled beautifully and redemptively in the Francine Rivers novel. 

I am also reading Jesus of Nazareth Volume I, which looks carefully at Jesus’s life from his Baptism to his transfiguration. I would like to finish most of this (I am in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount) so I can start Volume II, the Passion narratives, when I get back. I am reading it with a friend, and I am so excited to work through the Lord’s life on earth. The book looks at who Jesus is through the lens of the entire Bible, Old and New Testament. Most books on the life and teachings of Jesus just utilize the Gospels, rather than drawing on the Old Testament and the Law, Prophets, and Psalms which he not only came to fulfill, but was also intensely aware of as a Jewish man. 

I am also reading a book about the life and writings of Saint Bernadette. I am doing this for an important reason, and am not sure what I will come to think when I am finished. I decided to read about her after I visited a monastery in DC for some quiet prayer time and a beautiful respite from busy Capitol Hill. I enjoyed seeing the recreations of the Holy Land, such as replicas of Jesus’s tomb, the Temple Mount, and other things I can’t remember. But the largest and main attraction other than the beautiful church was a replica of a grotto where Mary allegedly appeared to a young woman. I didn’t know anything about this story. Upon further investigation, it appears that it was Mary appearing to a young, uneducated French peasant named Bernadette, and the apparition appeared to Bernadette eighteen times in the 1850s in the French town of Lourdes. 

I don’t know what I think about this. I don’t think it is impossible—nothing is impossible for God—but I was very curious to know what kind of person would be graced with such a visitation. So I decided to read about who Bernadette is, what personality and convictions, habits, and disciplines she had, and what mindset she maintained. Then I can better grasp what to think about it. Why would Mary appear to someone like her? So I decided to read her primary source writings to see what kind of person she was. 

In my cursory investigation of this issue from before I started the book, I do know these two things from the Bible: 1. When the dead rise, they will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25). 2. Angels sometimes appear to humans in Scripture (too often to cite specific examples). So I do think it is possible for Christians who have died to possibly appear to humans living on earth, but I can’t say anything more concrete than that. Samuel appeared to Saul after his death; during the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were present and appeared to Peter, James and John. That’s all I know. Maybe I will have more thoughts on the topic after I finish the book. 

Some people may challenge me for looking so deeply into these distracting topics, as they are not essential or centrally important for faith and belief. I don’t, however, think they are rabbit trails or academic. It gets to the foundation of how God speaks to his people. Is it only through the written Word? Is it only through the written Word and individually in our own personal hearts? Or is it through the written word, personal interactions with God, and a multiplicity of other ways that are limited only by our understanding and acceptance of it? I want to know and hear and experience God in every way that He wants to speak to me. That is why this is important to me.

Certain other people whom I have great respect for, and a whole worldwide Church denomination believe that God was conveying something very important in this incident with Bernadette and Mary. I am just trying to see what might be the big deal, and use wisdom and discernment (without Hubris) when making a determination about its meaning for my life.