Book of Comforts

Dear Reader,

This book began the same way we hope it will end: as a conversation around the dinner table. The four of us who worked on this book, and passed a basket of warm bread around a wooden outdoor table that day, don’t have a lot in common. And yet, although our families, careers, and life stages are very different, our unlikely friendship began at the intersection of four individually and collectively painful seasons—griefs that we’d been carrying quietly. From a sudden loss to the surprises that came along with adoption to the ache of packing up and starting over, we didn’t understand what one another was going through, and we definitely didn’t know the words to say. And then we found them. They were God’s words

In the midst of our own terrible messes, we have come to know intimately the comfort of God. The redemptive arc of the gospel doesn’t shy away from dealing with real suffering and sorrow. Christ came to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He is not scared by your deepest pain. He is our greatest friend and comforter. We hope this is a book you’ll feel comfortable putting in the hands of your friends and family members when you don’t understand the pain they are experiencing, and you don’t know what to say. Use this book as a daily guide, or open it anytime you need an extra reminder of God’s hand of redemption. May we find the words of comfort in these pages together

—Caleb, Rebecca, Kaitlin, and Cymone