Radiant is out. There have been some wonderful reviews, so we are just hoping that it will begin to sell. We have even managed to keep it below the magic £10 line, so no excuses! I know it’s an old story, involving the love of a man and woman, David and Abigail, but it’s also a book about friendship, about community, about women working out how to live in a world that isn’t about them at all. It was also part of a journey that led me to finding God in unexpected places. Most of you know I have a strong faith, and I do look for God in my day to day. Of course, it’s easy to see him in the sun-sets, the mountains, in the mossy green forests, but in writing this book, I began to find him in the messy bits of my life. To find him in the parts that weren’t necessarily perfect, and were sometimes quite painful. Where were you Lord, today? I was with you in the loo at three in the morning, when you didn’t feel well. I was definitely close when your case fell over in the train and you tweaked your poor back trying to right it. I was with you when you felt so jet lagged you thought you might fall asleep on your feet. I was with you in that first cup of tea after you had safely arrived in Vancouver, in the pair of trousers that you took and had to put back in the case because they were too big etc, etc.
I had an idea that in Canada, God would stop me in my tracks and overwhelm me with his presence. Instead, he gently nudged me along and helped me to see him in the tiny ordinary parts of my day. And so I have come back changed, lighter, braver, more aware of the possibilities. Less afraid of the possibilities. It is a gentle and yet profound undoing that I pray will take root.
