Abba’s Lesson: 30 stories of the lessons God teaches His children is a collection of 30 stories written by skilled female authors. Together, they give the reader a college course in learning God’s lessons for life. The book is the fifth in the Abba series published by CrossRiver Media Group. Deedee Lake, compiler and editor of the present edition, is an award-winning author, speaker, and life coach. The Aramaic noun Abba means father in a human family context and Jesus elevated it as an intimate or familial title for God. The book is a marvelous 30-day spiritual, inspirational, and meditation resource. Each chapter includes a theme verse, a story, and a closing prayer. The prayer helps the reader consider how they might pray about their circumstances. I don’t always know how to pray for mine. Abba’s Lessons is beautiful for at least two reasons: The authors’ transparency and the brevity of each story. The transparency in each chapter helps readers think about their own lives. The brevity means busy people can easily make room to read a chapter in their daily schedules. The stories make readers laugh, cry, rejoice, trust, hope, and pray. They did for me. The first and last stories serve as bookends. “Thy Will, Not Mine, Lord” opens the book. It tells about a military family learning to trust God to find an affordable California place to live. After they accepted an owner’s offer, the family joined hands and thanked God for “working everything together for us even better than we had hoped. He made the impossible—possible.” The last story “Absence with a Purpose” introduces the reader to the Portuguese word ‘saudade.’ Lori Ann Wood explains the meaning of the word. She urges the reader to view God as the Great Filler of the spiritual hole in our lives that “can only be filled by the One who triumphed over the ultimate emptiness.” I especially appreciated “Trusting God’s Way” by my author friend Alice H. Murray. She caught my attention in the first paragraph: “The story’s ending was great—better than I could have written…The Author of the universe penned it Himself. The beginning, however, rocked my world and would never have been the way I would have chosen for events to unfold.” Alice lost her job at a crucial time in her family’s life. She fretted, prayed, and stepped out of her comfort zone. As a result, she grew in her awareness that God knows best. The ending became so much better than Alice imagined. The book made me question my prejudice against a book whose stories are all written by women. Most of the stories contain husbands and male family members. This is a positive for men. They will read about positive and not-so-positive examples of their gender. The title made me think about two things. First, because I know the Semitic origin of the word Abba, the book’s intended audience is a Christian one. Nothing is wrong with this, but some non-Christian or non-religious person would benefit from reading the book. Second, if a person is not familiar with Abba’s origin, a curious person might think the book is about the famous Swedish singing group ABBA. One drawback to the book in our present cultural environment is the apparent lack of racial or ethnic diversity among the contributors. The content is excellent, but this observation shows how ingrained diversity is in my mindset. I imagine prospective buyers and readers might use this as an excuse not to buy or read the book. I do not want this point to dissuade the prospective buyer because I highly recommend the book and give it five stars.
