And God Created Hope: Finding Your Way Through Grief from Lessons from Early Biblical Stories »

Even the strongest among us can get stuck in the grief process, unable to heal and move forward. Now Rabbi Mel Glazer — a highly regarded and experienced grief-recovery counselor — gives comforting form to a crucial insight: That the messages of the Old Testament are a source of hope for even the most grieving among us. Drawing directly from the key books of the Old Testament, Glazer marshals, in a completely nondenominational way, their most profound, age-old themes to the very hard work of moving through and beyond grief — and into a life of hope and fulfillment.
Among the themes and early Biblical stories Glazer uses as his jumping-off point to explore the process of grief recovery are:
Bargaining (from Jonah), shock and anger (from Leviticus), fear (from Exodus), wandering (from Numbers), faith and strength (from Job), foregiveness (from Genesis), joy (from Proverbs), growth (from Psalms), legacy (from Deuteronomy), creating a new family (from Ruth), grief without death (from Song of Songs), and tragedy (from Lamentations).

Foreword   Russell Friedman     xiii
Lay Them Gently Down
Introduction     3
Bargaining and Prayer     15
Death Is Part of Life     29
Tragedy     51
And God Created Hope
Shock and Anger     67
Ritual     85
Fear     105
Wandering and Healing     123
Faith and Strength     159
Forgiveness     175
From Mourning to Morning
Grief without Death     195
Joy     219
Growth and Wisdom     227
Legacy     235
The Future: Creating New Relationships and Creating a New Family     251
Epilogue     261
Acknowledgments     268