To appreciate and nourish the soul of place is a spiritual exercise of great importance. We often take for granted the places where we live, love, or work. We forget that the ground on which we walk is sacred.
Jeffrey Johnson is pastor of Peace Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Wayland, Massachusetts. He has written a thoughtful, creative, and energizing book that enables us to appreciate the various places in our lives and to savor Bethlehem as a place we love in our hearts. He includes poems by such connoisseurs of place as Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Vassar Miller, Richard Wilbur, and Frank Conroy to help us use our imagination as a creative tool of recognition and renewal.
Whether writing about the manger, the stable, Bethlehem, Mary, Jerusalem or the meaningful places in his own life, Johnson encourages us to renew our connection to the holy ground in our tradition and in our communities. We loved his generous use of quotes and mini-meditations.
