I just realized that I haven’t yet told you about Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Deitrich Bonhoeffer.

It’s such an important and timely book about Deitrich Bonhoeffer, prayer, home, civics, humanity, race, and the author herself, Laura Fabryky, who generously shares her memoirs of being an American guide of the Bonhoeffer-Haus in Berlin.

I meant to tell you about it as soon as it was released in March. (I thought for sure I did.) I loved the book so much that I immediately took pictures with it and planned to share them with you.

Here:

And here:

And even with our chickens:

Both of my copies are well on their way from one friend’s hands to another’s so I can’t share the quotations I underlined and the notes I scribbled in the margins, but I can share three things from the book that have become precious gemstones lodged right in the middle of the rough places of 2020.

1. I cherish every minute I spent with Laura Fabryky, thinking through Bonhoeffer’s humanity and home. I came out of this book a richer person with – I hope – more gentleness, wisdom, and discernment about what it may look like for me to love my neighbor as myself.
2. I cherish Bonhoeffer’s example of praying through the Psalms. I began this practice as the pandemic hit, politics roiled, and my own life took unexpected twists and turns: I believe it has been a lifeline for me.
   Bonhoeffer relied on the Psalms to awaken his sleeping soul, teach him the full scope of human emotion, and give words to his complex thoughts and emotions.
3. I cherish the sheer comfort of an inviting travel memoir enriched with well-researched biography, thought-provoking political theory, and serious-minded spiritual reflection.

Laura Fabryky is humble, smart, and curious. Her portrayal of Bonhoeffer left an indelible mark on me. It made me want to ride my bike more often, to look for meaningful stories on my own beaten path, to dig in and learn something new, and most of all, to repent and try again.