I have an essay about the gift of grief on Christianity Today’s website. It begins: After my mother-in-law died, I remember thinking that I finally understood the word depressed. It felt as though I had been pushed underneath a heavy boulder, one that wasn’t crushing me but instead confining me and keeping out the light.…

I enjoyed The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen’s last epic novel of American life. And after reading the TIME cover article about his upcoming novel, Freedom, I can’t wait to dive in. Here’s what gets me interested: “For Franzen’s characters, too much freedom is an empty, dangerously entropic thing. After all, energy companies are free to ravage…

Sometimes I forget about Penny’s extra chromosome. A lot of the time, actually. When we’re with my family. When she’s being William’s bossy older sister. When she and I are cuddling on the bed and she asks me to tell her stories. But then it comes up. Take yesterday, when we were at the beach…

My name is George, and I am 11 years old. I’ve always wanted a brother, and prayed a lot to God for a little brother to play with. It took awhile for that prayer to be answered. He did give me a brother, but I didn’t expect that He would give me a brother that…

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Amy Julia Becker

Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith—caring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.  A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.

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