FROM THE PUBLISHER

Growing up is hard — at any age. The stories and essays in Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? by award-winning author Walter Wangerin, Jr., portray children, teenagers, adults, and parents as they grapple with the deep realities of life. And at the heart of this struggle are the vital relationships we have with families, for it is from our parents — and from our children — that we most profoundly learn about ourselves as children of God. In the first section, the author reminisces about his own childhood: how he learned the meaning of resurrection from his mother's spring cleaning; how he learned grace one day on a dangerous precipice; how he learned love on his first day in a new school; how he learned to see the divine from beneath a church pew. With the eyes of a child, Walter Wangerin helps us see anew the wonder and fullness of life. In the next sections of the book, he tells stories of his own time as a pastor to parents and children alike, and as a parent to his own young children. Sage advice and joyful humor are couched in the vivid stories — warm and intimate, raucous and chilling — that are Wangerin's trademark, for he is one of the most renowned storytellers of his generation. Finally, he concludes the book with touching stories of adult children and their aging parents, in a sense, to their parents. Far from being a how-to book or a simplistic parents' manual, Little Lamb gets inside its subject to view parenthood — and childhood — as the great, miraculous, and profound mystery it is. As the author says to an abused child: "You are not an accident. You were planned. You are the cunning intention of almighty God. Well, then, shall youthink ill of yourself? NO! . . . There is none like you. Whatever thing you admire — a leaf, a little cup, a sunset — you are more beautiful . . . God loves you." "And so do I. And so ought you in the morning light, when the dew is a haze of blue innocence."

Author Biography: Walter Wangerin Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Among his books are The Book of God; Paul: A Novel; Whole Prayer; Reliving the Passion; Preparing for Jesus; Mary's First Christmas; Peter's First Easter; Ragman and Other Cries of Faith; Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace; Little Lamb, Who Made Thee? Mourning Into Dancing; The Book of Sorrows; A Miniature Cathedral; The Orphean Passages; and Crying for a Vision. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he is writer-in-residence at Valparaiso University and holds the Jochum Chair.

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