SIMPLE GIFTS PB

Blessings in disguise

We are familiar with the idea of friendship as a gift, something that bestows blessing on our lives. Hospitality enriches both giver and receiver, while humour is a gift that, used sensitively, can shed a warm light even on a bleak situation. There are other aspects of life that we may take for granted or even actively dislike - aspects such as ignorance, tears, grief, and anger.

Drawing on Scripture, song, poetry and insights from daily life, Kevin Scully considers different facets of ten such gifts, from the familiar to the unexpected. He shows how each has the potential to be a source of personal wonder and joy and can also draw us closer to God and to one another. Simple Gifts is a book that can be read from beginning to end or dipped into for reflection or inspiration.

The author writes...

'One of the aspects of the Christian faith that seems to have got lost - at least, to me - is the desire or ability to see God behind all aspects of life. We tend to reserve God's power for things that go well or go right. This is captured in the phrase 'an answer to prayer'.

We are reluctant to apportion to God the negative aspects of life - be it personal, societal or universal.

Yet, the Bible tends to the opposite. Biblical writers, especially in the Old Testament, have no trouble seeing God's hand in the bad events of history or personal fate. (The plagues against Pharaoh in Exodus are perhaps the most obvious example.) They are more than punishment; they can be ways of understanding God's power in the great and small events of life.

We used to speak more openly of 'God's will' in all manner of ways: weather, world events and personal relationships. Does that mean we don't read our Bibles in the same way? Or that we have a more refined, even sophisticated, way of looking at what happens around us?

This was the impetus for my new book Simple Gifts: Blessings in disguise. I wanted to see if some of the negative aspects of life - tears, anger, grief, imperfection and ignorance - could be construed as positive, even as a gift from God. I also include the balancing challenge of doing the same with some of the good things in daily life - hospitality, rest, humour, friendship and hope.

I draw on scripture, as well as painting and poetry to look at these gifts in our lives. It is my hope these may be used to invigorate a sense of personal wonder which will have readers going back to their Bibles to look for the sources of these gifts in the past and for today.'

Paperback 176 pages