A review for 'Glimpses of Grace'

Review by Christine Hoover

Gloria Furman. Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013. 192 pp. $14.99.

After I had our first baby and settled in as a full-time homemaker, my husband would come home from work each day with interesting stories and details of growing relationships at his job. I quickly started dreading when he’d turn to me and ask, “What did you do today?” Uh, let’s see. I managed a shower, changed countless diapers, and nursed. It felt both productive and completely inane at the same time.

Sometimes on our after-dinner walks around the neighborhood he’d ask another question: “What are you reading in the Word these days?” Well, I’m grabbing small bites before my eyelids close on me yet can’t seem to remember anything for more than five seconds, given that my postpartum brain feels like a sieve.

Nevertheless, I wanted more. I wanted to know my life wasn’t over and that God was at work both in my heart and also in our home. I distinctly remember thinking all I’d learned in my years of spiritual growth and sanctification leading up to that moment was being tested. The sleeplessness, the self-sacrifice, the monotony—all of it was drawing out what God had for so long been teaching me in his grace. And most significantly, I recognized that caring for my home and my baby would be a testing ground and further gospel education.

This idea—that the home uniquely demonstrates and crystallizes the gospel—is the message of Gloria Furman’s Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home and the reason I so resonated with the book. Brimming with rich yet accessible theology, Glimpses of Grace encourages women to think critically about why and how the gospel applies to the mundane of life. Furman, who lives in Dubai with her husband and three children, writes:

The fact that everybody does mundane things regardless of their religion is another reason we ought to consider what makes the way we live distinctly Christian. (16)