At first glance these books have nothing in common. And when I started reading them I didn't expect them to. But it has occurred to me that in their own way they both point to seeing "the world" in a new way. For Sally Ride it was seeing the "world" she lived in (earth) from outer space. For Bradley Jersak it is seeing the "world" of Christian faith from a far deeper perspective than most of us were taught. So - a "higher" perspective on the physical dimension of the universe and a "deeper" perspective on the spiritual dimension.
I'm still reading both books but here's a taster from each will help you see what I mean.
After her first mission in a Challenger space shuttle in 1983 Sally writes:
"I remember the first time that I looked towards the horizon. I saw the blackness of space, and then the bright blue earth.. And then I noticed that right along the horizon it looked as if someone had taken a royal blue crayon and just traced along Earth's horizon. And then I realised that that blue line, that really thin royal blue line, was Earth's atmosphere, and that was all there was of it. And it is so clear from that perspective how fragile our existence is. It makes you appreciate how important it is to take care of the atmosphere. ... It's everything that separates us from the vacuum of outer space. If we didn't have that atmosphere, we wouldn't be here, and if we do anything to destroy that atmosphere, we won't be here. So it really puts the planet in perspective."p163
It's harder to pick one quote from Jersak's book because it covers so much and is so well developed from one topic to another. Essentially the title declares what he explores in every chapter: What if God is exactly like Jesus? Then he faces into all the difficult questions most of us have heard (and asked!) - what about the violence and genocide seemingly ordered by God? What about the images of punishment for those who "don't believe"? What about the idea that Jesus died to satisfy an angry God? Doesn't the Bible often talk about "the wrath of God"? I am enjoying the way he writes with these questions taken seriously and respected. Simultaneously he builds his response very carefully with a vast knowledge of early Church fathers and Biblical scholarship. Somehow he does all this while keeping the book within reach of the "ordinary" reader.
A quote from the back cover: "What is God like? Toxic images abound : God the punishing judge, the deadbeat dad, the genie in a bottle - false gods that need to be challenged. But what if, instead, God truly is completely Christlike? What if his love is more generous, his Cross more powerful, and his gospel more beautiful than we've dared to imagine? What if our clearest image of God is the self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering Love revealed on the Cross?"
You can read more about both Sally Ride here and Brad Jersak here.
