A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. Dan McDougall is a Master’s student at Regent College. This review appears by permission of CRUX, a quarterly journal published by Regent College.
Your Father Loves You, by James Packer. Edited by Jean Watson. Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
In this through-the-year devotional, Jean Watson has compiled nuggets of James Packer’s insights into a palatable form for daily readings. The more erudite among us might wonder why Packer allowed himself to be ‘cut-and- pasted’ in this way, while the less charitable might question the need for yet another anthology of ‘spiritual candyfloss’. Fortunately, Your Father Loves You dispels both concerns. While each day’s reading encapsulates a single meditative idea, it relates to a larger weekly topic, which in turn orbits around a central theme – life in the family of God. Thus, while Packer’s discussion ranges from personal holiness to death to understanding one’s atheist neighbour, the reader can readily see how such things relate to the cohesive holism of ‘life with Father’.
Watson has masterfully preserved the theological and literary tone of Packer’s works from which this book is drawn. Beneath his disarming armchair style lurks Packer’s uncanny ability to put his finger on the heart issues of what it means to live in God’s
family. This is not a book to help the Christian get ‘warm fuzzies’ about his inclusion in the Kingdom. On the contrary, it is more like a checklist for growth – in gardening terms, a meditative tool to acquaint the believer with God’s why and how of pruning, fertilizing, weeding and watering. In a pastoral way, Packer helps his readers see that these are not things to be shunned, but rather to be embraced as provisions from a caring and loving heavenly Father.
Packer does not resort either to the extreme of encouraging spiritual navel-gazing nor of spurring to unconscious frenetic activity. Instead, he integrates his theological reflections with comments on personal godliness and public responsibility. Of course, in the space of the few short paragraphs devoted to each reading, he cannot be faulted for not giving an exhaustive account of his topics. He does, however, invite his readers to “use them as a springboard or a trampoline” for further study and reflection.
This book will appeal to Christians at all stages of growth. For this reason, individuals, families and small groups can all benefit from Packer’s insights as they seek to live before the Father while practically living in the world.