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Band Website: www.bhpublishinggroup.com/roomofmarvels/
MOURNING TURNS TO JOY IN A DREAM ABOUT HEAVENUniversity professor and respected author James Bryan Smith experienced a heart-wrenching season of loss in the late 1990s when his mother, his two-year-old daughter, Madeline, then his close friend all passed away within months of each other. To cope with their absence and resolve some of his related spiritual questions about eternity, Smith wrote
Room of Marvels. Originally published in 2004, it's being re-released in Fall 2007 with updated cover design and epilogue.
Although penned as a work of fiction,
Room of Marvels very closely mirrors Smith’s own story. The book follows Tim Hudson, a successful Christian author, who has finally arrived at God’s address: the end of his rope. The writer has lost his mother, daughter, and best friend in a short time and desperately seeks answers during a spiritual retreat at a Massachusetts monastery. His advisor, Brother Taylor, challenges Tim to meditate on a biblical passage from Luke that says, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Taking those words to heart that night as he prays himself to sleep, Tim dreams about a vivid journey to Heaven; a dark train ride toward a brilliant horizon, arrival at an autumn-marked valley where the beauty of nature, music, and communication are magnified far beyond earthly imagination.
One by one, Tim encounters departed acquaintances and distant relatives, personal heroes like C.S. Lewis, and has extended reunions with his mother, daughter, and best friend. Each one, joy-filled by their Heavenly citizenship, helps Tim heal his world-torn heart as God’s glory and grace come into new perspective.
Dallas Willard
(The Divine Conspiracy) writes in the afterword to
Room of Marvels: “It is assurance of the continuity of our lives under God and in this universe with him that liberates us from ‘the sorrow of those who have no hope’ (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And it is on precisely this point that James Smith’s wonderful story helps us. The biblical and theological content is quite solid – though it will be surprising to many who do not put concrete content and image and action into their reading of the Bible and their theological reflection. It must be surprising if it is to address the need. And the need is great – appalling, when you observe how devout Christians suffer in the face of physical death.”
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Room of Marvels – by James Bryan Smith
Published by
Broadman & HolmanISBN 978-0-8054-4563-3, Trade paper, 192 pages, $9.99
Amazon
