When the author first came to me some time after the death of her daughter, I knew her to be struggling with a grief too great to bear without some effort on her part to justify the bitter pain of bereavement—to find some working answer to the enigma of human existence. Her quest led her over a curious path but through the same valley of decision and faith countless others have encountered and will encounter. It is to help the latter that she was led to write her book.

Some may have some difficulty in accepting the author’s interpretation of the events after her daughter’s death. I do myself, although I was to some extent involved in them. I still remember my astonishment when she produced the crayon sketch of the church seen in her dream. It was the prerestoration church of which I was then rector and which she could never have seen. Whatever the valuation placed on this incident, it was the turning point in her life, but it does not in any way affect the validity of the Christian position she reached through her Judeo–Christian background.

Some will find their chief interest of the book in the thorough knowledge of Old Testament religion revealed by the author, and how she found its fulfillment, and hers, in the Christian Church. Others will be moved by the personal experience of the author and, perhaps, find hope in their own situation. At least they will feel that a deep experience shared by them has been put into simple and expressive words, and be glad.

James S. Cox
Dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Honolulu, Hawaii