PRAY: What to read now.

Several times a year I get consumed by reading a book for days. I'm tempted to shirk off my responsibilities and read until my eyes hurt. I'll read while my son is eating breakfast, while I'm cooking, and really at any other spare moment. The Eve Tree captured me over the long weekend. I love that this book was written by a blogger, whose words I've found encouraging and exciting. It was self-published and clearly a labor of love. The love of the family in the novel will stir something within you as the beautiful story unfolds.












We all want to be known. Molly, the book's protagonist, is no different. Her journey in The Eve Tree reminds me of how desperate we can feel for connection. How lost we can feel when it seems that no one is making the effort to understand us. But, finally, how fervently God can call us back to the life-giving relationships we have.

While no one knows us completely, there is always a friend, spouse, sibling or parent who, at least, sees pieces of who we really are. I believe that God reveals our true identity to the people who need to know it. People who will do their best to love us even when we're being difficult or are feeling lost. People who want to see us succeed. People who will help us find our strength.

I finished this novel feeling thankful for the people with whom I can be vulnerable and encouraged to lean on them when life feels too big. The Lord knows me and I'll be in that blissfully perfect relationship with him someday, but, for now, I want to keep investing in relationships with the family and friends I adore, even if it feels imperfect some of the time.

But now thus says the Lord, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."
Isaiah 43: 1


O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue,  behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
Psalm 139: 1-4