Ending Note: The Grand Weaver

Every day, I take a walk. And every single day, the walk begins and ends in the same place: Home. Sometimes, it is natural to begin and end in the same place.

And so it will be with this review.

On my first real day of reviewing The Grand Weaver in my post The Good, I quoted the thesis statement:

[God’s] design for your life pulls together every thread of your existence into a magnificent work of art. Every thread matters and has a specific purpose.

I pray that as you read these pages, you will see those threads come together and know that God is indeed the Grand Weaver of your life.

And so one question remains: does the book accomplish its goals?

Yes…and No
To some extent, this is actually a personal question. What I mean is, Zacharias seeks not just to prove that God is the Grand Weaver of lives in general {though I think he does an excellent job at this}, but that God is the Grand Weaver of the reader’s life in particular. Because of the very personal aspect of the book’s goal, I cannot answer this question with certainty. I am sure, like many books, that some readers were convinced, while others are still floating in a sea of uncertainty, holding tightly to the fact that God is a Grand Weaver indeed, while still being tossed by the waves that make a person doubt that He is weaving very grandly at all in their own life in particular.

For me, I would say that the book doesn’t. Allow me to explain.

I know with certainty that God weaves together the events of my life, of the life of my family, for our good and His glory. I know this not because of a book I read, but because I can already see how some of it fits together when I look back. Because I see it looking back, I can trust it moving forward.

The Grand Weaver is full of beautiful stories that are lovely illustrations of God’s weaving…in the lives of other people. And they brought real rejoicing to my heart when I read them, for sure.

But the book does not regularly bring the reader to a point of personal reflection. Nor is there a simple statement that bridges the impersonal and personal, giving a sense that since God has done it in the lives of others, one can trust Him to do it for us all. Nor is there a gentle reminder of the Scripture that all things are worked together for the good of God’s chosen people.

Overall, a Thumbs Up
Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t make the book a bad book. Perhaps, the book did accomplish this for some readers. Or perhaps the book dreamed largely of itself. No matter. It was still a good read.

I hate ending with a twinge of sour, but There It Is. I believe the job of a critic is to give the good along with the bad, and, since The Grand Weaver was strong in the Good and True categories, the front end was heavier on praise. C’est la vie.

Coming Up
As always, I am on to the next thing. First up will be The Case for the Real Jesus. I’m looking forward to all the new research I know will be in it. And then on deck I have something a little different than my usual. Grace, in particular, will be pleased with this one: Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen.