Bad days are one thing – everyone has them now and then. But what about the darker clouds that settle over a life for weeks or even months at a time? What about separation and divorce, prolonged illness and hospitalization? What about the loss of a friend or a parent, the absence of a child or a spouse?

For the friend or family member who just isn’t coping, no matter what you say, the sturdy simplicity of this little volume offers something most well-meaning sympathy cards forget: a gentle insistence that there is still a God who watches over all, and a stubborn faith that the worst trials of life’s “difficult hours” will one day be overshadowed by his comfort and peace.

In reminding us of the power conferred by hope, Now Is Eternity is a source of daily strength. Given the understated beauty and brevity of its texts, it is one the thirsty reader will surely come back to again and again.

Christoph F. Blumhardt (1842-1919) influenced a whole generation of Europeans, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Emil Brunner, Oscar Cullman, and Karl Barth. His father, Johann C. Blumhardt (1805-1880) was a Swabian pastor and is regarded by many as the father of German pietism.