"Perhaps it is Jesus' sense of the precariousness of all life, or the infinite value of a sparrow or a child or a woman, that made people follow him wherever he went," writes Madeleine L'Engle in this book. In this blend of memoir and meditation upon her journey with Jesus, the prolific Christian author affirms the power of faith and imagination. L'Engle writes about her childhood encounter with the Lord in her bathroom and her lifelong astonishment over the mystery and the majesty of the Incarnation. She reflects upon his relationship with the Father, his anger, his fearlessness, his balance of action and rest, and his wonderful use of stories and parables to convey the Kingdom of God.

At one point, L'Engle notes, "Sometimes I hesitate to use the word Christian because it has come to mean so much meanness and narrow-mindedness and hate, with promises of vengeance, retribution and name calling." Here the author is speaking out of her sad experience with fundamentalists who have spearheaded campaigns in various parts of the country to ban her children's book A Wrinkle in Time. Yet even here God guides her as she uses the title for the second member of the Trinity from the New Zealand Prayer Book — "pain bearer."