“There's one thing you need to understand," Larry said. "We love because God first loved us, even in the face of all our unloveliness." He paused. He seemed to want to give John time to think about that. Then he said, "Go home and love your wife John."I'm afraid I can't find the strength in myself to do that, Larry."Pastor Larry leaned forward, smiling tenderly. "That's good, my friend," he said. "Now we're getting somewhere.”

“But then what do you do?""I pray for strength."The words were simple, straightforward. Josef pushed against the floor with one foot and the swing moved back and forth, cradling us."And then you're not afraid anymore?""No," he replied. "Then I am still afraid. But then I know that God knows I'm afraid, and that is what makes the difference.”

“There's a story unfolding with a definite beginning and an eventual end, and even though we can't begin to imagine what the whole plot is, and we can hardly even see beyond the present moment, someday we're going to see and understand all of it. For now, we trust. Later, we'll know.”

“You see, Novelka, in an odd sort of way, some of our strongest relationships are with people who have died. We miss the person, we think of them, we wonder what they would want us to do, how they would want us to act. Though they are not here, they still strongly influence our lives. And so we go on loving them, sometimes even more, when they are gone.”

“He glanced about him to make sure we weren't overheard, leaned forward, and whispered, 'He collects stamps.'The family looked bewildered.'You mean he's a philatelist?' said Larry at length.'No, no, Master Larrys,' said Spiro. 'He's not one of them. He's a married man and he's gots two childrens.”

“Here's the paradox. We can fully embrace God's love only when we recognize how completely unworthy of it we are.”

“There is so much of suffering that I will never even begin to understand. But I am content in believing that I don't even have to understand why the story unravels the way it does so long as I know that in the end everything will be all right.”