Creating a Christian Home

Simply SenseSational Decorating

By Terry Willits

Zondervan, 144 pp.

Decorating Your Heart and Home

By Brenda Gay Shumaker

Harvest House, 80 pp.

Walk into a big Christian store, like Family Christian Store, and check out what marketers sometimes flippantly refer to as "Jesus Junk." T-shirts, pencils and erasers, stuffed animals, jewelry, dolls, all kinds of neutral objects have been "Christianized" by being branded with a cross or fish symbol, a Bible verse, or the name of Jesus. You can even buy tea bags with Bible verses printed on the side. With Terry Willits' "Simply Sensational Decorating," has home decorating fallen into this category, a nonreligious topic "christianized" by the addition of a few spiritual ideas?

Maybe, but then, maybe not. It's perfectly true that, apart from the introduction and a few occasional references to God, the design principles and instructions in Willits' book are just as clearly presented in numerous secular (and more generously illustrated) decorating books and magazines.

But Willits, an interior designer whose business, SenseSational Homes Inc., is based near Atlanta, does have something to say, and there are Christians who need to hear it.

Willits reminds us that the Creator God was orderly and creative, giving plenty of attention to beauty and detail. This could be a freeing idea to Christians who have so rigidly disciplined themselves to the worthy goals of, say, evangelism and service, that they haven't given much time to notice or pursue the aesthetic opportunities around them.

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