Review
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Title: Grace Where You Are
Author: Emily Belle Freeman
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2020
Number of Pages: 121
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN-13 Hardcover: 9781629727271
Price: $16.99
Reviewed by Richard Ji for the Association for Mormon Letters
In a small town in Nebraska, there was a locally well-known steak house. At the time, it was the best place to eat in town. As you walked in, among the first things you would see is a sign that says, “Come as you are.” Emily Freeman’s new book, Grace Where You Are, is the author’s personal exploration in her study of grace. The focus is on the realization that we can experience the Lord’s grace wherever we are and just as we are. Written in a free-flowing, storytelling way, this devotional work has a feeling of thoughts from a close friend rather than a preacher from the pulpit.
Freeman takes us through her insights in two parts with a total of twelve numbered chapters. Part One is titled “Understanding Grace” and has 4 chapters. Part Two is titled “Believe in Christ” and has 8 chapters. There is an opening unnumbered chapter that sets the stage for the key concept as reflected in the title, that the Savior will come to us where we are. There is also a closing unnumbered chapter that invites us to come to Him, especially if we are broken. This chapter invites us to see the beauty of how our trials, struggles, and mistakes redeemed through grace, make us into the masterpiece the Savior desires us to be. Simple but evocative illustrations that appear to be hand-drawn punctuate key points throughout the book.
Grace Where You Are reminds us to let go of perfection. Not to let go of striving for it, but to let go of the idea that we need to be perfect before the Lord will come to us. It reminds us that no matter where we are on the journey of life or what mistakes we may have made; we are not beyond the reach of the Savior’s grace. Freeman beautifully cites multiple examples of how the Savior reached people where they are. From stooping down to the ground next to a sinner, to visiting the home of the soon to be raised from the dead, and to the island of exiled and afflicted; the Savior met people where they were and helped each to rise.
So, it is with each of us. The Savior’s invitation to join Him is extended to all – to those who are on the margins, to those who feel empty, for those who are in deep, dark places, to those who have wandered, to those who are discouraged with aches, and to those who feel broken.
Freeman concludes her thoughts with the lesson of Kintsugi or “golden joinery” (p. 113). This is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with golden lacquer. The Japanese believe that the pottery once repaired is more beautiful than before it was broken. Freeman shares her experience of repairing a vase in a similar manner, piece by piece. Each broken vessel has a story. Each of us has our own story. Grace Where You Are, helps us to see how beautiful each story becomes when we allow the Savior to come to us where we are and how we are. However, it does not end there. The Savior will meet us where we are but does not want to leave us where we are. He desires to help us pick up our pieces and put them together in a stronger, more beautiful, and more complete way. I highly recommend this faith enhancing book for an uplifting experience.