Writing
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Wagon of Fools This is my latest review of a BookCrash book. Wagon of Fools is by Samuel Benjamin Gray, through Wild Olive Press. It is a true blessing; I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
The full title is Wagon of Fools and Other Parables, and I immediately assumed it would be something like Walter Wangerin's books. They are Christian parables, a bit heavy-handed, some quite touching, others leaving me sighing, "Oh, come now!"
But Wagon of Fools outshines Wangerin the way Glacier National Park (Montana) and Denali Peak (Alaska) outshine a muddy field in Iowa. It's not a fast read; each story demands to be savored, pondered, delighted in. I set the book aside between stories, because I ... well, I was full; I needed time to digest what I'd read, before going back for another helping.
The back cover says, in part: "If your heart's been broken, if you've taken some wrong roads in your life, if you are lonely, if there is something missing in your relationship with God, if you feel there must be more to this thing called Christianity than simply church on Sunday and Wednesday night ..."
Sound preachy? I was afraid it would be. But, oh! it's not. "The stories require thought," said the material I received with my copy of the book. Oh, glory, I thought, cynically. It's going to be one of those ponderous tomes written by a sophomoric philosopher.
Not!
Wagon of Fools isn't easy to read. The themes and subjects are dark, often related to the Holocaust, always connected with misunderstandings of God's plan and heart. But they are infused with His light in a way that leads to wisdom and truth.
This is a wonderful book. A book of Truth. A book to be read and re-read. A book to be lent to others with ambivalence—I want them to read it, but I know I won't get it back!
Do you want to think? Be challenged? See God's hand in difficult circumstances? Struggle to follow Him through horror and sorrow? Find His joy all around you? Read Wagon of Fools. You won't regret it. I promise.
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