One.
What if one moment you were worshipping the Mighty God and Creator that brought you into existence . . . and the next you were damned for eternity?
You had never seen sin, you had no experience with death, you had never felt separation from your God. But you had turned your worship to the greatest being under God in an impulsive moment that seemed to make sense at the time. You only belatedly realized that something had changed. You just weren’t sure what.
What if you watched as that same God replaced you in his affections with a baser, uglier, mortal breed—a creature made of clay. And what if you watched in horror as he breathed into their mud bodies the essence of his own spirit—a gift you had never received?
And what if they took every God-given thing considered precious by you for granted as they failed again and again . . . and then turned away from God altogether?
Would you feel some satisfaction when God, unable to allow them to continue, decided to destroy their world and all of the clay people along with it? And would that satisfaction be lost when you learned he couldn’t bear to kill them all but had decided to spare a family—a seed group of those mud people to repopulate the earth?
What if you watched as God patiently taught them laws so they could stay in relationship with him . . . and they continued to do the same things that had ruined their relationship with him in the first place—over and over again?
Remember: You only did one thing.
And what would you think if that same God decided, in a radical move, to become one of them, to take on that mud flesh forever, and to let them kill him, and to die for them, so they could be reconciled with him and with him again . . . forever?
You were supposed to be with him forever. You only did one thing.
And how would you feel upon knowing that not every mud person jumped at the chance to have that great gift you feel so much more deserving of—only one thing—that the majority of the mud people decided they didn’t want or need?
Would you be jealous? Would you hate the mud people?
Would you want them to die?
Of course you would.
And so I reread the story of God’s love affair with humans through this new lens, and
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT
• The quote by Isak Dinesen is from the book
• The liquor stores mentioned in the book were originally written as “package stores,” a New England term.
• The Borders store in chapter 2 was the location of the author’s first book signing of
• Esad is based loosely on the story of a local Bosnian tailor in the author’s home city.
• Sheila’s two boys, Justin and Caleb, are the two sons of the author’s friend since first grade, Julie.
• The star-shaped perfume bottle that used to sit on Aubrey’s bathroom counter is “Angel” by Thierry Mugler.
• Lucian’s “Carpe Brewem” sweatshirt in the coffee shop chapter came from Lazlo’s brewery in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Lucian in the coffee shop (wearing the brewery sweatshirt) is the author’s friend, Scott.
• The Asian man on the plan with the receding hairline is the author’s father.
• Lucian’s “Animals Taste Good” T-shirt in the Commons chapter is made by David and Goliath.
• The author and her sister have a cameo at the bar at the Four Seasons Hotel.
• Every piece of art mentioned in the museum chapter was on display at the time of the chapter’s writing in 2005.
• The house in Haverhill is based on one owned by the author’s college friend, Heather.
• Clay’s small apartment building on Norfolk is based on one exactly like it in real life.
• The Gospel Room is a real church the size of a house across the street on Norfolk.
• The tea shop in Cambridge is called Tea Luxe in real life.
• All of the Bible searches conducted in
• Clay’s office exists as described in Cambridge, across from the former Quantum Books.
• The author is named for a Puccini opera. The operas mentioned in
• The dim sum restaurant is the China Pearl, in Chinatown.
• The Four Seasons Bristol room was indeed refurbished just before the rewriting of
