Best Books
This week a man told me a tragic story, one of unimaginable pain and loss. The horror which had befallen a good and godly man was so dark and crushing that my attempts to offer words of wisdom and comfort seemed feeble and cliché. I know the Scriptures. I know that God will make all things new and restore all that was lost. But I walked away from the conversation unsure how my own sanity and faith would survive such an experience. Can God be found when life turns into a nightmare, when we’ve exhausted all hope and evil seems to have won the day? The story of Jesus affirms that God’s power and grace can be with us in the deepest crisis, turning darkness into light and death into life.
In Reaching for Wonder – Encountering Christ When Life Hurts, author Marlo Schalesky explores fourteen New Testament encounters with Jesus which turned people’s lives around, bringing healing and hope to those in desperate situations. You’ll meet a Samaritan woman shackled with shame, a leper filled with loneliness, and an outcast wandering among the dead, haunted by the voices in his head. Listen as Jesus 
calls a child back to life, tells a healed woman to go in peace and be freed from suffering, and whispers away the sin of a wayward woman. Time and again Jesus rescues, delivers, heals, and restores. In each case, when all seemed lost, Jesus showed up and changed everything.
Marlo Schelesky is a superb writer who, in her own words, invites the reader to “walk through the stories of the New Testament. See the depth and purposes of a God whose plans and passion go far beyond our healing. They restore sight. They restore our soul, even in those moments when life hurts the most. Come, dare to encounter the living God, and hope again.”
-Darrel Holcombe, Owner
Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts
Colonial Promenade, Alabaster
205-663-2370
