April 19, 2021
Thoroughly Alive blogger Clarkson (Book Girl) shares stirring reflections on the power of beauty, goodness, and love amid suffering in this eloquent work. She describes healing encounters that she first experienced as a child struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder: “Where suffering has made God abstract and distant to us, where brokenness leaves us with unanswerable questions, beauty allows us to taste and see God’s presence.” Clarkson explains how she has found God’s goodness through the love of her parents, moments of natural beauty, and in the hospitality of others. She writes of how, despite once considering getting married and having children “an almost impossible dream” due to her mental illness, she met her future husband, expressing heartfelt gratitude for the fulfillment of her desires. With references to art, literature, and scriptures, she speaks of beauty “through all the great and changing grief” within the world and draws inspiration from Job’s refusal to curse God despite his pain and suffering. Ultimately, Clarkson encourages Christians to love in a manner that makes “the tenderness of Jesus tangible.” This affecting testimony will spark hope in any Christian in need of a lift.