What if...what if Jesus gave us the image of children because they are so utterly dependent on their parents....one thing they did very well: opening the empty hand. Children are excellent receivers. ~ Laura Boggess, Playdates With God: Having a Childlike Faith in a Grown-Up World, p. 67
I hungrily devour each chapter in Laura Boggess' newly released Playdates With God: Having a Childlike Faith in a Grown-Up World, and then savor and digest each morsel of truth her words open like a gift. Laura articulates and validates what I've been experiencing since I serendipitously captured the beauty of a tassel flower and began cultivating an eye for life's mercies with a camera years ago.
Laura gives a name to my photographic wanderings -- Playdates with God. She uncovers my deepest longings -- the needs I have, like that of a child, for love, intimacy and dependency on my Father -- that draw me to this practice where I ask Him to open my eyes to glimpses of His beauty, His character, and His gifts that I might capture them for my joy and His glory.
In Playdates With God, Laura helps me realize the importance of being intentional to make this practice -- like Sabbath -- a scheduled event on the calendar each week -- a day and time where with open hands I'm ready to receive like a child what the Father freely gives.
With support from Scripture, as well as resources in art, literature, science, and theology, Laura uses multiple images of play -- trampolines, swings, super-soakers, hide and seek, etc. -- to share her journey to recover a child-like faith through her own playdates with God in the midst of her adult responsibilities as wife, mother, author, poet and clinical psychologist.
To chase the God-bliss, do I dare step outside my preconceived notions of what a mature spiritual life looks like? Do I shed some of the self-imposed rules I subscribe to -- not worry about what others might think? ~ Laura Boggess, Playdates With God: Having a Childlike Faith in a Grown-Up World, p. 34
Playdates With God is a beautiful book I will long treasure.
Thank you, Laura and Leafwood Publishers, for my complimentary copy of Playdates With God in return for my honest review.
#PlayDatesWithGod
