The Dawn of Hope:
Encouragement for those who grieve is a small book with a brilliant
hope-filled message for all who grieve. The author, Eldyn Simons, recounts the
loss of his sixteen year old son who died in a plane crash while on a summer
student exchange trip to Peru
The author has walked this road of grief and knows the
tremendous pain and suffering it entails. He teaches the importance of facing
the pain as well as how to hang onto God and the hope that He offers.
In short chapters beginning with a scripture and ending with
a poem and a prayer, Simons tells about the loss of his son and recounts other
losses—the loss of a spouse, the loss of the older generation, even the loss of
a child by miscarriage.
God led Simons on a “journey of wonder and discovery” after
the darkest night of his soul. He says God “will take you to many unexpected
places, places of which you may never even have dreamed…. He will teach us how
to bear the pain, how to laugh again, how to once more taste life’s sweetness.
He will never leave us.”
He also says, “Our responsibility is to hold fast to God, to
snuggle close so nothing can come between us. His part is to cover us with his
love, to encourage and nourish us with His life that we may be fruitful in our
service to him, no matter what conditions surround us.” This is a marvelous little
book for those who are grieving. Buy a few and give them to friends who are
hurting.
“When they walk
through the Valley of Weeping TLB
