Jim McGuiggan was born in Belfast a couple of years before the second world war began. He currently works with a ‘brave and radiant congregation’ near his birth city in Northern Ireland. His wife Ethel has lived with chronic ill health since the age of six and the fact that he is no stranger to suffering shines through in this book. It is a series of short essays around the theme of 1.The Wilderness. 2. The People of the Wilderness and 3.The God of the Wilderness. He writes straightforwardly without complication and throughout one can sense the pain of the sufferer and the voice of confidence. He does not bring simple answers to issues of suffering, in his view there are none. He vehemently rejects the “‘health and wealth gospel” as being untrue and says that until we make up our minds to that then we’ll be more tempted to crumble when heartache comes or when tough decisions have to be made”. Instead he poses the thought that sufferings are an expression of God’s wrath. However, he shows us that God’s wrath is a vital manifestation of His holy love which relentlessly pursues us in order that we and all creation might partake of His redemption. This is a devotional book by a man of deep experience who poses serious questions to those set on knowing God. Is there purpose to suffering and loss? What of child abuse, natural disasters and global disease? There are helpful quotes from other writers and a number of illustrations upon which he draws in order to answer these and other questions and point us to God Himself as working steadily in all things to bring His sons to glory and to end the groaning of all the creation when all things shall be made new. The person that reads this book prayerfully will find themselves worshipping and glorying the more in God.
