Creativity comes in many forms. While I’d describe myself as a creative, for me, my gift is in writing. Pass me a pair of knitting needles, or a canvas and palette of paints and I’d be stumped. I’m constantly amazed at the many talents which lead people to weave, sew, paint, engrave, play music and demonstrate their God-given gifts in so many ways.
Julia Stevens, a fellow writer, says that she often sings along with a harp or makes glass mosaics. I could sooner fly to the moon than do either, but at least we share a love of reading and writing.
Like Him
Julia’s book, “Like Him”, is a collection of poems, inspirational stories and prayers intended to bring Christian believers closer to Jesus and to understand their true identity in Him. Each chapter heading reflects her faith journey, beginning with, “Where I’ve Been”. She introduces us to her eighteen-year-old self, shy, suffering from OCD and consumed with anxiety. She decided to travel to Israel to live in a community and work on her fears. However, as the quietest member of the group, she found herself working as the laundry maid, pegging out sheets on the washing lines on the roof rather than getting involved with others.
Early one morning, she pegged out forty sheets on the rooftop washing line before travelling with the rest of the community to the Garden Tomb Easter worship service in Jerusalem. The heavens opened and as everyone huddled under their umbrellas, Julia remembered her sheets and prayed for a miracle. Returning home, she ran at top speed up the stairs to the roof, only to find it covered with puddles with hailstones filling up the corners. “To my amazement, each of the many sheets were bone dry! I ran around excitedly shouting to our manager, ‘Brigette! Brigette! They’re dry! God kept all the sheets dry for me!’”
‘Brigette! Brigette! They’re dry! God kept all the sheets dry for me!’”
Miracles have been part and parcel of Julia’s faith journey. When she was eight years old, her mother who was on antidepressants, a heavy smoker and drinker with suicidal tendencies had a life-changing conversation with a Christian lady called Pam. Julia’s mother experienced love and healing, kicked her sixty cigarette a day habit in twenty-four hours and became a light-hearted, happy person full of joy.
In a chapter entitled, “When we see Him, we become like Him – name above all, Julia explores the power that names have. Human parents take time and consider just the right name to give their child, often with a special meaning. “Julia” means “youthful” and the author has always had a childlike heart and faith. She reminds us of Matthew 18:3. “Unless you would change and become like the children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.” She suggests finding the meaning behind your name from a Hebraic perspective and praying into what you find out.
My name, Ruth, is from the Old Testament and in fact I’ve got a whole book to myself. As a child, I was always very proud of this (it’s a great book!) and I was always told that my name means, “Mercy.” Having looked it up, I discovered that it can also be translated as, “Friend”, “Companion” and “Vision of Beauty.” I rather like the last one. When I’m stumbling about in the mornings, bleary eyed with unbrushed hair, trying to get the children out of the door, I’ll remind myself of this. I don’t feel like a vision of beauty most of the time, but Julia’s book is all about learning who we are in God’s eyes and how beauty is so much more than skin deep.
There are some beautiful stories in this book from Julia’s own life which I found very touching and uplifting. She visited North Carolina where the Moravian brethren once made their home. “We went to a beautiful lodge in a valley. There was a small stream bed covered in thousands of gold flecks. I asked God what the ‘golden gravel’ was and He told me that angels walked along the stream and left their glorious footprints.”
This book is a heartfelt collection of experiences generously shared by the author. By sharing her own journey and diving deeply into the scriptures, she illuminates some of the mysteries of God’s word. It is not a book to flick through or skim-read, but a resource to return to again and again.
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Like Him by Julia Stevens is available from The Christian Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon and from your local independent bookshop.