"Perfectly Human" by Sarah C. Williams. A Review.

Perfectly Human: Nine Months with CerianPerfectly Human: Nine Months with Cerian by Sarah C. Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Someone from church loaned me a copy right after we lost a grandson at birth. I wasn't sure if I could read it, and so waited four weeks. I was finally able to pick it up, and wept through much of the tale. Though "Perfectly Human" was originally written in 2005 as "The Shaming of the Strong" it was been reworked in 2018 and added to for this edition. Though I cried through much of the material, I can wholeheartedly say it is worth the read, even if you have lost a child or just received news that the life you are carrying inside is malformed, or might not live.

"Perfectly Human" is the story of Paul and Sarah Williams, their family and their friends, and it revolves around the gestation, death and birth of their youngest daughter, Cerian (Welsh for "loved one"). While Cerian was in the womb, the medical establishment discovered she had thanatophric dysplasia, a deadly skeletal deformity that would result in the death of the child at birth. From the moment of that news through the remainder of the carriage, the reader walks with Paul, Sarah, Emilia, Hannah, Wren, Emma, and the family's loving network. There were hard decisions, harsh assumptions made by the medical professionals about sub-optimal life and worth, physical and emotional pain, and the loss and the grief. In the story there are telling moments that show how much Westerners are inebriated with the idea of choice and strength defining a person's worth. As Williams notes in the epilogue, "in the Western world, choosing what we desire has become the essence of what it means to be human" (156).

"Perfectly Human" is a personal epiphany that God-as-Trinity has made us in his image, and thus made us as relational beings meant for relationship with himself. Our worth is not found in how strong, athletic, or accomplished we can be, but in God. His loving us is evidence of this worth. Mothers and fathers, seniors and students will find the book worth their time to read and discuss. And those who have lost a special little one, will rejoice - though likely, as I did, through tears - in the hope and value affirmed in this account. I highly recommend the book.


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more