Waiting for Morning: Hearing God's Voice in the Darkness

Rating:
Summary: FaithWorks, July/August 2001
Review: Cindy Crosby finds glimpses of God through flora and fauna. While struggling with a severe depression, she found solace in the rhythms of life she saw in the natural world around her. The cycles of darkness and light reaffirmed the fact that while this world is a fallen one, it is also one in which God provides hope and redemption.

Like nature writer Annie Dillard, Crosby is a keen observer of the environment, and her garden and the local arboretum provide much of the raw material for her reflections. The controlled burn of a prairie fire stimulates questions of human suffering. The birds squabbling at her feeder provide a lighthearted portrait of the church. A sleepless night reminds her that even the darkest hour brings hope of morning.

What is most refreshing is that unlike much contemporary devotional literature, Crosby allows the metaphors to speak for themselves, without belaboring the spiritual point. The voice she writes with reflects the Voice she hears through creation - subtle, gentle and profoundly stirring.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, rare gift for us all
Review: Cindy Crosby offers fresh glimpses of grace in this beautifully written meditation on life. But it's not the sweet, syrupy kind of life that most Christian authors seem to think we all have (or should have). Rather, it's about the life most of us live, full of hills and valleys, dark clouds and sunshine, birth and death.

Like Crosby, I'm an avid gardener. Though I've never lived in the Midwest where most of her essays take place, she brings alive the mysteries of the life cycle in her descriptions of the tall-grass prairies--ecosystems, really--as they ebb with the flow of life, death, and rebirth. Her prose sings with the wonder of nature.

Likewise, reading of her hike into the Barataria wildlife preserve near New Orleans, a place I, too, have visited, brought back all the sights, smells, and general spookiness of southern swampland. Her deftly modulated prose conveys the awe any thoughtful encounter with the natural world yields, and for Crosby this world is full of spiritual and personal insight. I say "insight" rather than "lessons," because she is careful not to reduce the glory of creation to a simple one-liner from God. No simplistic "thou shalts" or "thou shalt nots" here.

Crosby infuses her book with a deliciously appealing Christian spirituality, weaving it in with a welcome light touch uncharacteristic of most religious writing.

Rating:
Summary: Joy, Tears and Grace
Review: I liked the way this author balanced her experiences in life, sharing both ups and downs. I liked her writing style which really draws you into what is happening by the delightful descriptions of her life events. Best of all I found new ways to take hope when things look darkest. I hope she will write more soon!