“From His eternal perspective, it's tolerable to allow our temporary dreams to fall apart.”

“Weight causes things on earth to fall--to remain grounded. What if the weight of sin holds the same purpose as physical weight? When I curl up on my sofa with God and his Word, that feeling that makes me want to bold should be the feeling that keeps me there with him. It's the weight of my sin pushing me down from the high and lofty places where my pride would rather keep me.”

“I am a human, and we humans arrive with "screwed up" on our foreheads. We come that way, but somewhere between toddlerhood and being a grown-up we learn to wipe off our forehead signs. Sit up straight. To be good. But before God I am no different from these men. My forehead is clean my soul certainly is not. That day on an old, beat-up sofa with some old, beat up guys, I rethought the things of value to people and the types of people I've valued, and I realized that God shown more through those accused and hurting men then than in me.”

“You have to thank God for the seemingly good and the seemingly bad because really, you don't know the difference [until we get to heaven].”

“Entwining his hands in her hair, he kissed her with all the passion and love he'd kept hidden in his heart for thirty-sex years. Waiting for her. Only for her. As he felt her kiss him back the frozen wall inside him finally broke, allowing life and sun inside his soul. He pulled away, stroking her cheeks as he looked down into her eyes. "I love you, Carrie," he whispered. "I love you.”

“Last year a baby orca and its mother wandered too far upriver from the ocean; we saw the story in The Oregonian. They didn’t know how to get back home. Pater said all the fuss from people and boaters and news helicopters was probably confusing them more. He didn’t say he thought they’d never find their way back, but I know that’s what he was thinking. In my mind, I like to think they submerged so no one could see them under all that deep blue, popping up again when they were safely out to sea.”

“... But she sees that his mouth sucks on his mischievousness as one might savor a hard candy.”