Mended

I was asked a long time ago to review this book and took on the project with every good intention of reading the book and giving the review in a timely manner. Angie, I am so sorry. Life gets in the way sometimes and my life did. I thought I might back up ten years and give you a bit of my background. I have neuroendocrine tumors in my liver and I've had my diagnosis for nearly ten years (so you see why I am backing up that far =} ). Another name for my cancer is carcinoid; it is a non-aggressive, slow-growing, incurable cancer. In the last year, I've had three fairly intense treatments for my tumors: one chemo-embolization, one radio-embolization, and thirty radiation treatments for one tumor that can't be reached through its blood supply. Oh yeah, for three months, I was teaching the adult Bible study at church on Sunday mornings. Something in my life had to give, and it was part of my reading/exercise program. I am finally at a point to pick it back up and finish my obligations.

I've forgotten how I stumbled upon Angie Smith's blog, but it had to do with her story about her daughter, Audrey Rose, and the impact this little one had during her very brief life. So when I was offered Angie's book, Mended, to read and review, I jumped at the chance. This isn't Audrey's story, but it is the story of how God has mended Angie's life in so many ways and how God wants to mend our lives too. When I read the first chapter of the book, I knew this book had something for me and something for me to share. The picture on the front cover of the book is of a broken pitcher that's been glued back together. Angie uses the first chapter to tell how God instructs her to break a pitcher and then glue it back together, how God uses those broken parts to make us beautiful in spite of our leaks and cracks.

The Japanese will often use gold to mend a piece of broken pottery to make it more valuable. I have shards of pottery from Chinese kilns that have been mounted in silver and made into objets d'art: a hand mirror, pill boxes, compacts, pendants. Just because something has been broken doesn't mean it's not useful anymore. We are all broken pieces, but in God's hands, we become beautiful just the same because we are made in His image and we are being remade into His image. It's a lifelong process and no one's process is the same as anyone else's.

I truly appreciate how Angie has brought this out clearly with biblical explanations through listening to God's voice. That voice can be audible to all of us, we just have to listen. With Angie's help, we can all do that better.

This book is Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a Mended vase.