Beautiful and Terrible Things — A Biblical Theology of Suffering and Grace

This is my most recent idea for the title of a work coming out of my recent writings and talks on suffering. (See the page A Biblical Theology of Suffering for those links.) The quote comes from Frederick Buechner and is oft cited. I have used it for years in graduation speeches. The fuller context is worth considering. It is in his collection of daily meditations, Beyond Words. This is from day 127 and the entry is “Grace.”

The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.

Excerpt From: Buechner, Frederick. “Beyond Words.” HarperCollins.

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you.” That is very powerful and I think a fairly good summation of grace and the biblical theology of suffering. So, what do you think, is that a decent title? Of course it has to have a sub-title otherwise they would take away my scholar card.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

3 thoughts on “Beautiful and Terrible Things — A Biblical Theology of Suffering and Grace”