Böcker av Virginia Herbers

Discover how unlikely friends can provide us with gifts beyond measure. Unwelcome guests are not generally greeted with gratitude but occasionally they become unexpected friends bearing gifts we never would have asked for. In Gifts from Friends We Never Wanted, Virginia Herbers introduces a sampling of these types of surprising guests in our lives--failure, disappointment, worry--and the gifts they offer us when they come visiting. Following the same pattern as her first book, Gifts from Friends We've Yet to Meet, Herbers chooses a gospel character to accompany us as we engage these uninvited "friends." Weaving together the stories of Jesus's contemporaries, his response to their foibles, and stories from her own experiences, Herbers invites us to join her on a journey of discovery, vulnerability, honesty--and hospitality. She asks if we dare to befriend the least appealing truths of ourselves to surrender them to a God who can enlighten even the greatest darkness? If we dare, then we will have truly understood the value of these Gifts from Friends We Never Wanted.

What does it mean to be anonymous in the gospels? Isn't God the one who calls us by name and knows us even before we are born? In Gifts from Friends We've Yet to Meet, Virginia Herbersintroduces readers to nameless gospel characters, each of whom provides us with a story, a journey, and a gift. Reflecting on experiences in her own life, Herbers journeys through these gospel stories, inviting us to reflect on seemingly insignificant encounters in our own lives. Who are the ';anonymous figures' who have played a critical role for each of us? How do the experiences of the nameless gospel characters continue to reach and teach us today? Can it be that their anonymity allows their experience to be both individual and universal?In each of these anonymous characters, Herbers introduces us to dear friends we just haven't met yet. And each of their ages-old encounters with Jesus contains a gift for all of us today.