CBB Review: Who Does He Say You Are?

Review by Michele Craig

The Velveteen Rabbit written by Margery Williams was published in 1922. That was 37 years before I was born, yet somehow Margery wrote that book for me. Before I could even read, I constantly begged my Grandmother to read that book to me….over and over and over again. I am not sure how much of it I actually understood, but that was not the point. The book- Margery Williams- understood me.

Now- today- I have found my new Velveteen Rabbit…another book written specifically for me. It is called Who Does He Say You Are?: Women Transformed by Christ in the Gospels. Written beautifully, wonderfully and poignantly by Colleen C. Mitchell. Colleen, like Margery, understands me. Each day I pray “…Oh Master grant that I may never seek … to be understood as to understand…” but sometimes I want and I need to be understood. Colleen understands me. I also pray “…accepting hardship as the pathway to peace…”

AAAGGGHHH! Do I have to? Colleen did and does. In the Afterword she shares…

“You have come to know too a bit of my personal story, of the way my life has been shaped by both deep sorrow and great joy. I hope I have shown you a full and revealing picture of how Jesus remade me when I was no longer certain who I was anymore- how God loved me with the most tender of mercies through my grief and gave me new life in the most surprising of ways. I hope you have seen the ways he has worked to redeem my story and bring me to the place where I can hold both the pain of loss and the joy of hope in the balance of his love.”

Whether you are dancing around pain trying to avoid it or you have entered your pain, but are now stuck in your grief, or maybe you are emerging out of it- this is the book for you. Or maybe, you are lulling in God’s consolations right now…this is still the book for you! If you, like me, have always longed for someone to travel with along the “pathway to peace,” Colleen Mitchell is your guide to peace… and humility and love and healing.

She is not only your guide she offers herself as your friend. A true, fearless, real friend. In Who Does He Say You Are? Colleen walks with you holding your hand while reminding you that God- the Holy Trinity- the Eternal Exchange of Love- is holding your other hand. Knowing that, you can make it through and to anything God wills in your life.

Colleen says “It is my sincerest hope that, whatever brought you to the pages of this book, you will walk away knowing something more about who you are in the eyes of your heavenly Father than you did before you began. I hope that you have a new curiosity about Scripture and what you can learn from the encounters with God that inhabit its pages. I hope that you see life in those words in a way you hadn’t before and find freedom to apply your creative imagination to those stories and turn them over and around until they bring you deeper into the heart of your Savior.”

I will be reading Who Does He Say You Are? by Colleen C. Mitchell over and over and over again. Colleen sees and understands. She has written this book for me and for you.

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