The image on the book cover to the right is one of the top news images of our time. Immediately upon seeing it, we asked ourselves, “How could that happen? It would take a miracle!”

In the providence of God, one of the passengers on board was a Christian fourth-year medical student who got on the flight home to Charlotte, SC, standby,  because his residency interviews in New York City, January 15, 2009 were concluded sooner than expected.

From the book: “As I took my seat, I pulled out two books I had been reading on the interview trail. One, The Sovereignty of God, by Arthur W. Pink, was a heavy theological book that had been convincing me of just how sovereign God is. The other was a little lighter read, Prince Caspian, by CS Lewis. This is a children’s book with great biblical allegories....

“During this time on the taxiway, the flight attendants went through their typical speech of what to do if, “In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device.” I only half-way registered what she said, but I?guarantee you, those words will never fly past my brain again, unattended.”

Dr. Andrew Jamison is a first-year intern at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas, doing a preliminary internal medicine year before starting a dermatology residency, also at Scott and White. His wife, Dr. Jennifer Jamison, is in her first year of a family medicine residency at Scott and White. They met in medical school at Charleston, South Carolina.

In this best-selling classic on the subject of loss and renewal, first published in 1989, the author comes alongside people in pain, and shows the way through and beyond it, to joy again. This book has proven helpful to those who are struggling and to those who wish to understand and help.

Having lost his first son in 1978, Dr. Biebel became immersed in pain, again, in 1986, when his second son, Christopher, was stricken with the same genetically linked illness that had caused Jonathan's death just a few years earlier.

The preface captures the book's honesty and practicality, "All around us, people are in pain. Emotional, physical, relational, spiritual - whatever its sources, the pain feels the same. Even born-again, sincere, evangelical, Bible-believing, church-going, church-leading believers are in pain.... Many who hurt have been nursing the wounds for so long they can't remember what it's like to be anything other than sad. Others denied the pain and submerged the anger so long ago that they are unaware how the resulting depression, even bitterness, has subtly impacted their ability to love.... Now I know it's possible you've heard a lot of principles and endured too much advice. So I'll skip most of that and try for something else: Truth - one pilgrim to another. And the truth is, pain has two faces, human and divine. The human face is haggard, drawn, contorted, and streaked with tears. The divine is calm, assuring, kind, and loving - but otherwise streaked with tears."

Note: This book is a companion volume to Jonathan: You Left Too Soon, written by the same author after the death of his first son in 1978, described elsewhere on this site.