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A review by jewellspring
Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman
4.0
What did I think? I THOUGHT it was only an okay written book, skipped and rushed at certain points, but I FELT powerfully touched as a result of reading it. I read it straight through in 24 hours, even catching moments in the car. Tears came just reading the opening dedication from Mary Beth to her daughter, Maria, and I closed the book with wet tears as well.
I am deeply thankful for Mary Beth's honesty. She writes of the pain and ache up to the end. She doesn't try to wrap her family's loss and wounds up in the answers Christians are "supposed" to have. She avoids that temptation. She has to choose, over and over and over again, to see God's heart and admits the battle day after day.
I can't imagine the pain of losing a child in an accident by the hand of one of my other children. But her pain is the focus of the book with a Savior who is "acquainted with grief". She doesn't try to tell her son's story, or even the story of all her contacts through her public husband, or the money they must have had for the weddings of the older children, or vacations, or therapists. She stays focused on her process. She is now acquainted with grief, the grief of a mother, and she helps us understand that there are no easy answers, not even close, for the grief of a mother who family has been invaded by suffering.
I needed this book. Her story also helped remind my heart of the comfort of Christian culture and the hope of heaven. It reminded my heart of some of the given truths of Christianity that can help heal when taken for granted. I was deeply touched by her heart's expression of care for Chinese orphans and the story of Maria's Big House of Hope. Yes, my heart needed to be reminded of the goodness of God in the midst of suffering without it being cliched, rushed, or logically explained. This book also helped my heart to "see".
Thank you, Mary Beth.
I am deeply thankful for Mary Beth's honesty. She writes of the pain and ache up to the end. She doesn't try to wrap her family's loss and wounds up in the answers Christians are "supposed" to have. She avoids that temptation. She has to choose, over and over and over again, to see God's heart and admits the battle day after day.
I can't imagine the pain of losing a child in an accident by the hand of one of my other children. But her pain is the focus of the book with a Savior who is "acquainted with grief". She doesn't try to tell her son's story, or even the story of all her contacts through her public husband, or the money they must have had for the weddings of the older children, or vacations, or therapists. She stays focused on her process. She is now acquainted with grief, the grief of a mother, and she helps us understand that there are no easy answers, not even close, for the grief of a mother who family has been invaded by suffering.
I needed this book. Her story also helped remind my heart of the comfort of Christian culture and the hope of heaven. It reminded my heart of some of the given truths of Christianity that can help heal when taken for granted. I was deeply touched by her heart's expression of care for Chinese orphans and the story of Maria's Big House of Hope. Yes, my heart needed to be reminded of the goodness of God in the midst of suffering without it being cliched, rushed, or logically explained. This book also helped my heart to "see".
Thank you, Mary Beth.