Seasons of Grace: From Wilderness to Wonder

Les Harding is the author of The Voyages of Lesser Men: Thumbnail
Sketches in Canadian Exploration and The Journeys of Remarkable Women:
Their Travels on the Canadian Frontier.

Seasons of Grace is a lovely, wise volume. There is much to think about
here, and the book can be opened at random and read profitably more than
once. Geared toward the layperson, the book avoids all philosophical
doubletalk. It is well written and easy to read. The author covers such
topics as does God exist; doubts; what we really believe; God’s grace;
suffering; the church; the nature of Jesus; and much more. Practical
anecdotes are used to good effect to make the author’s points. While
the ground Shepherd covers is familiar, his insights are always fresh
and sometimes unexpected. For instance, he writes that one of the worst
fates that can befall a Christian congregation is that it become
“nice”: Jesus loved the sinner, but he was often angry and
outspoken; contrary to popular belief, Jesus was never “nice.”

The “wilderness”—disappointment, pain, suffering, stress, and
ultimately death—belongs to the human condition and is inescapable.
Has God turned his back? Of course not. The “wonder is not a sigh of
relief as the wilderness is left behind. Rather, it is our gasp of
amazement at God’s drawing near to us in the midst of that wilderness
that cannot be left behind.” There is wilderness in every season, yet
each season is a season of grace.

My only quibble about the book is the use of “foreparents” as a
politically correct replacement for “forefathers.” Why not use
“ancestors”?

Victor Shepherd is a scholar of 16th-century reformer John Calvin and
of 18th-century theologian John Wesley, a professor of theology, a
United Church minister, and the author of several books.