In 1976, I was pregnant with our first child.  We stumbled on MacDonald's name in C.S. Lewis' biography and thought, we'd better find out about this MacDonald person.  We went to the local Bible book store and found only three things.  A book of poems (Diary of an Old Soul), a book of sermons, and a boxed set of Gifts of the Child Christ.  We were poor but decided to "splurge" on the hard back set of Gifts of the Child Christ.  If MacDonald was as good as Lewis said he was, we would want the books to last!  We still have them!

Reading the story Birth, Dreaming, Death changed my heart.  Over the years we devoured everything we could by MacDonald and thanked the Lord that Michael Phillips started publishing condensed versions as originals were hard to come by at the time.  The Father heart of God and what MacDonald taught us about Him shaped our lives.

24 years later, after our son (that baby I was pregnant with) was killed in a car accident, I read the schoolmaster's wife's prayer about her baby from Birth, Dreaming, Death at his funeral.  I had come full circle, treasuring up that prayer for years and then praying it myself, leaving our son for God to care for till we meet once again.  We are so grateful for MacDonald and all he has taught us over the years.  Our lives would not have been as rich without his stories and teaching.