Preparing for Lent?

The timing of my book’s website crashing and my subsequent efforts to get a whole new site and blog up and running is seeming rather serendipitous to me now – it being less than a week before Lent.

Years ago, I was chatting with a woman I had never met, but who had just finished reading Dawson’s Gift. She told me she was recommending my book to everyone as a wonderful Lenten read.

I must say I was a bit awed to hear that she felt that way and her words stayed with me the rest of the day.

I began to think about the logistics, the plan of how it would/could work. It’s a big book. How many pages would one have to read in a day to read throughout Lent? So, as I went about my daily chores, I was doing the math in my head. How many days? How many pages/chapters?

And then I abruptly stopped what I was doing. And, stunned, I asked myself out loud, “Chapters? How many chapters in the book? Forty. Forty? Really? Is this true?” I actually had to go get a book, open it to the last chapter and, yes, it was true. 40. How perfect! 40 chapters. 40 days in Lent. Read a chapter a day. It works!

Then I thought, oh, but then there’s the epilogue. I decided that would be okay. Read it the day after Lent … And then I thought…wait…what is the day after Lent? Of course, Easter. And what day do you think the epilogue just happens to take place? Yes, Easter Sunday! It was then that the awe I had been feeling earlier, now nearly overwhelmed me. For this was something I had not planned, had not even realized. This was something I had not knowingly done. At that moment, it seemed to me this could not have happened by chance … someone, somewhere surely had a plan. And it wasn’t me.

When I told my reader friend what I had discovered all because of her, she was awed, too, for she had not realized it either. She said, “I only knew that Dawson’s beautiful story contained the unmistakable message ‘from suffering comes redemption when you believe.’ “

While we both agreed it certainly wasn’t necessary to have a fixed schedule for reading, we both, also agreed that this amazing discovery certainly did make it seem custom-made for Lent.

She paused, then added, “Andrea, this is clearly a gift from The Holy Spirit.”