Unthinkable grief, unending grace | Seasons of Sorrow by Tim Challies

Unthinkable grief, unending grace | Seasons of Sorrow by Tim Challies

This is a short book that pulls you into the life of a grieving Christian father. In many ways, this book is about Tim’s son, Nick. Nick was studying to be a pastor at Boyce college when he went to be with Jesus at the age of 20, leaving his family behind.

In 42 short chapters, Tim pulls you in as he experiences his very first year of grieving Nick in the fall, winter, spring and summer. At times, this was a hard book to read because the magnitude of grief is just so great. Nick was a young man with much earthly potential - a gifted student, very godly, engaged to be married - and the Lord saw fit to take him at a very young age, leaving much seemingly unfinished. 

Seasons of Sorrow must have been a labor for Tim to produce, finding it within himself to share some of his most personal longings, doubts, questions & reassurances. I’m not sure I would have that same bravery. And yet because of its personal nature and the Challies family’s faithful suffering, this book will be a balm for the wounds of many. Tim paints an admittedly imperfect and partial but helpful picture of what it looks like to grieve as a Christian - when we don’t have all the answers, the anguish is great, and the tears won’t stop coming.

Highlights for me include the many excerpts from poems and songs that Tim references, his recollection of their numerous visits to Nick’s grave, and the truths in Scripture that he goes back to time and time again. I also was moved by Tim’s recounting of his relationship with Nick, it’s not often that the father/son relationship gets portrayed in books in such a positive light.

This will be a book I recommend very broadly: to every sufferer I know and to everyone who knows someone who is suffering. I can’t think of a person who would not be helped by reading this story of loss and comfort.