He Surprised Me Part 1

Homeschooled Authors asked: 

When God meet you unexpectedly in the pages of a book?

(We excluded the Bible)

Jenelle Schmidt ~ I love moments of subtle beauty in carefully crafted words that give me a better glimpse of my Lord and Savior. I think sometimes I “hear” better when I’m not expecting it. He Whistles for the Cricket by Gwen Walker is a story in which God meets me every time I read it. Wanted to share a brief excerpt from the story that demonstrates one of those powerful moments:
 “Did she frighten you when she talked that way?”

“Well, you’d think so, but the Lord has a special way of bearing you up, times like that. I’d read Little Women to Sarah when she was younger, and we’d cried together over Beth’s dying. But she thought it was too bad she and Jo hadn’t talked more, about it. I always remembered that...”

“Did you talk about Heaven, Mrs. Chaney?” she asked.

“Yes, we did, Miriam. And do you know, Heaven becomes dearer, when a loved one goes on ahead. My daddy always told me he didn’t want to live a long life. People who live long, he
said, live to see their children die. He lived to see his granddaughter die. Miriam, there’s just no place to put pain like that except in Jesus.”

Grace Pennington ~ Interestingly, the best answer I can think of is Paper Towns by John Green.  It wasn't a very good book, and I didn't even like it that much (certainly not as much as The Fault in Our Stars).  But perhaps more than anything else it has reminded me not to make assumptions about the inner life of others based on outward appearances or reputation or really anything else.  And that reminder has stuck with me even though the story itself was mediocre.  God looks on the heart, and even though we can't truly do that, I was reminded to do my best to achieve that in my perceptions of others.

Sarah Brazytis ~ For several years I had read in other books about an out-of-print classic – The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston. I knew it was a tale about a schoolmaster in rural Indiana in a rough, back-country school who conquers toughs who like to beat up schoolmasters; I’d read those kind of stories before and enjoyed them, so I kept my eyes open and found a very old antique copy.
Well, it was certainly about rural Indiana. And the toughs certainly were determined to beat up the schoolmaster. But what I didn’t expect was the unique message of salvation, a message that both moved and amazed me with its power. The schoolmaster brings one of his tough young students to the Lord – but only after having his own personal encounter with Christ, and making a tremendous personal sacrifice.
It’s a beautiful story. It contains faith, self-denial, the definition of true repentance and true religion, and a glorious ending that nobody sees coming! I felt like I learned a lot about the nature of the Gospel and how It reaches everyone in a unique way, as well as how our actions as Christians influence the world around us. And it was totally unexpected!

Claire Banschbach ~ One of the books that really stands out in my recent memory is Resistance by Jaye L. Knight. It really challenged me to think about my reaction and actions if I were to be put in a position where my faith was challenged by persecution. I was really struck by the message in the book and I think that’s what I enjoyed most about it.

Now it is your turn: Post your answer to the question on your blog. On Friday, you will have a chance to share the link to that post here so that readers and authors can check it out!

The official rules for the Read-to-Win Challenge can be found here.

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