In the Face of Blueprint Words

Many of you know Jessica Kelley through the posts we’ve featured about her on the ReKnew site. She is someone we’ve come to love very much. Jessica lost her five year old son Henry to cancer and has since begun writing a book about her journey. We can’t wait until it’s published. While Greg has written many books that deal with the Warfare Worldview, Jessica will come at this subject matter in the form of a narrative. Story is powerful and can reach people in unique ways. We know this will have a Kingdom impact that is deeply personal.

Here’s a short blog Jessica wrote about where she is currently as she writes this book and settles into a new place. (She recently moved to Saint Paul.) She’s a voice worth listening to.

From Jessica’s post:

Why write a book?  Because when my son died, blueprint words were waiting.

Nearly everywhere I turned I was hit with the notion that radical suffering and evil happens in accordance with God’s mysterious, divine blueprint.  Mountains of popular Christian literature assured me that Henry’s death and our grief were all part of God’s detailed, perfect plan. All to increase God’s glory.  All designed to refine me.  Some books insisted that it was not a tragedy, but a gift, and admonished me to thank God for Henry’s fatal tumor.  Others insisted that to reject the blueprint worldview is to reject the gospel itself.  Books like these filled my Google search results, lined the shelves of the Christian bookstore, and were gifted to us from other grieving parents.

So I turned to my laptop and I began to write.  I wrote fervently, blazing through the raw grittiness of my own faith-journey and revealing what I’ve found – a God of love, perfectly revealed on the Cross.  A God who does not send evil and radical suffering to suit his mysterious purposes.  A good God who is at war, a war he will eventually win.  I wrote about the powerful impact this understanding had on the process of losing my 4-year-old.