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Purchased as part of a Bible Study subject; we are not all the way through the book but it has brought out many opinions and conversation. Good.
The challenge is to become like our Father as Nouwen suggests. This book was enlightening and life changing. It's a wonderful, and I believe, accurate picture of Who our heavenly Father is: I think that God is often and very unfortunately inaccurately/insufficiently portrayed by our churches and elsewhere. (I tried it at my workplace). thank you so very much for making this book available at an affordable cost.Elizabeth Kaiser
My pastor mentioned this book briefly one day, and that same weekend, I found the book randomly in the book store. Very beautiful, insightful, and wise. This is one of my favorite books, and it really provided me insights into the painting itself, the author and his struggles, as well as myself - seeing parts of each character in the infamous parable in myself. It taught me a lot simply by stating the obvious and articulating what I was feeling. I felt like I was seeing myself for the first time after reading it. Highly recommended.
I personally believe this is a great book. It helps you see the parable of "The Prodigal Son" from a different perspective and helps you realize that you can not only identify yourself with the prodigal son, but with the other two prominent figures in the story. Also, the book will help you see that it doesn't matter how far away from home or how many struggles you have in life, you are not so far away from your heavenly father. He will always be willing to reach for his son and bring him home.
Nouwen takes the reader through a process of looking at the relationship between all three of the characters in the story of the prodigal son. He uses the rembrandt to encourage the reader to take a closer look into the people, helping to add complexity and dimensions to what is going on in the single event captured in the rembrandt--the prodigal son returning. As Nouwen takes the reader into his personal reflections of his life, I also discover how parts of each character is in me and that I can identify with the prodigal son, the all loving father, and the bitter obedient elder son. This is a book that I will take out over and over again as a reminder of God's encompassing love for me and just how vast it is.
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