Charis in the World of Wonders: A Novel Set in Puritan New England

by Marly Youmans

and yet, the fresh thought that God did not order and arrange every detail of our lives was both solace and terror.

I imagined that they sorrowed for me as they danced, though they knew some secret that I could not know and so rejoiced.

Just as we reject our works and our merits as some kind of payment for salvation, so we can reject such man-forged acts of ruin as punishment and proof of damnation.

Though my story had flashed around town before I even arrived, few were so thoughtful as to consider their words around me.

And I, I have been through enough unpleasantness to see that God does not dabble with our lives but suffers and joys with us.