Wrapped in God's Grace by Barbara Bras is a unique take on how past events affect our current life, and how faith can weave through and be passed down generation to generation. The biography begins with the powerful authenticity Bras shares of her life of infertility, her cries to God and wondering if He would answer, the doors he opened when she & her husband adopted their son, Raphael, the surprise blessings of biological children, and then the difficulties and heartbreak that occurred due to various decisions Raphael made from childhood into adulthood. While our stories are not the same, the fact I also have biological and adopted children made Bras sharing extremely tender and touching.
After sharing her story of learning to truly release Raphael to the Lord and trusting Him completely, Bras then shifts her book to a focus on two people who experienced the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. Those two children, Arshag & Gulle would find their paths crossing many years later. They are able to move to America & get married. Through God's grace, they not only survived the Genocide, but have several children. Their first grandchild is Bras. Again, God's plan and purpose is on display.
The final portion of the book focuses on Bras teenage and adult years--the times she sometimes trusted God, but didn't trust and follow Him completely. Through various missteps, heartbreaks, and yearning for more, Bras finally finds her life back on track as she marries her second husband--the one with whom she would adopt Raphael and continue with on a path that continues to put God and whatever He has planned for their lives above everything else.
While I truly enjoyed this book, I do wish the end would have presented a clearer telling of when Bras "put her stake in the ground" in going whole-heartedly after God. It's mentioned in the Afterword (which is one paragraph), but a chapter focusing on this area would have truly brought the book full-circle in a powerful way.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher, but was under no obligation to write a review. My honest opinion has been provided without any requirement to give a positive review.
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To purchase your copy, click here.
About the Book
The crushing pain of seven years of unanswered prayer for a child. A miraculous adoption story, followed by unforeseen challenges and heartbreak.
Barbara Bras begins her memoir by sharing God’s answer to her prayers and the difficult times that followed. Although God does not provide an easy fix, the intricacies of God’s plans reveal themselves to her, and she relives her life in a new light.
Bras then recounts the stories of her grandfather Arshag and her grandmother Gulle, survivors of the atrocities of Armenia in 1915. Arshag, sent to South America for his protection, returns as a soldier of the Armenian Legion to fight for his country. Gulle is the only member of her family to survive the death march into the desert. Through God’s grace they find each other, marry and move to America in 1921. Bras is their first grandchild.
The final section of the memoir follows Bras as she marries and moves to Hawaii, only to return as a single mother to teach school in a small town. It is there she finally realizes that God has provided her with protection and direction. Bras discovers that once we truly surrender our will to God, His plan always produces blessings beyond our wildest dreams!
About the Author
In 2015, Barbara Bras left her career to pursue her dream of serving God. She believed that her first step would be to share the amazing ways God had blessed her. As she wrote of her son’s miraculous adoption and the challenging years that followed, it led to the rediscovery of her entire life, including the history of her grandparents’ remarkable survival in Armenia and her search for purpose and love. Her memoir led to her first novel, which she hopes readers will find engaging and memorable.
Guest Post from Barbara Bras
An Unanswered Prayer
I struggled for many years with one unanswered prayer. It was my “go to” request every time I came before the Lord.
Convinced that with God nothing is impossible, I also knew that the Lord may say “Not now” many times, even before he says no. I acknowledged that the Lord probably had a much bigger and better plan in mind for me, but none of that offered any comfort. As I struggled year after year with my unanswered prayer I found more questions than answers.
Was I fooling myself and ignoring God’s “No”? Could my lack of faith be the reason I couldn’t hear the Lord? And if not now, then when dear Lord?
Then I discovered that the Lord said “Not now.” because he had a miracle waiting for me, more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Like Hannah, God finally answered my prayer for a child. And through that miracle I learned that surrendering my will to God allows Him to bless me beyond my human understanding.
To my further surprise, I discovered that the miracle didn’t mean the end of the story. Experiencing a miraculous adoption didn’t come with a guarantee or a promise that the rest of my life would be free of heartache.
After all of those years of unanswered prayer, I found myself back on my knees with a new daily prayer request. The Lord had something else to teach me through this new struggle, a lesson that took me another fifteen years to learn.
Not only did those fifteen years lead me right back to where I started, surrendering my human will to His and trusting in His greater plan, but it convinced me that the Lord wanted me to share my story.
Wrapped in God’s Grace, a Life Rediscovered begins with my unanswered prayer for a child, but as I wrote it, God’s plan for me became clear. The second section of the book recreates the events surrounding the survival of my grandparents through the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Their immigration to America in 1921 led to my existence. The book closes with the Lord blessing me with a loving husband in spite of the many missteps I made directing my own life. A reviewer found this nonlinear sequence of events unusual, and I am fine with that, since that’s how the book unfolded before me.
Captured by St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, I now view my writing as a tribute first to the God who comforts and strengthens all of us in hardships and trials, and second as my mission to encourage others.
A photo gallery for
Wrapped in God’s Grace, a Life Rediscovered can be found on my website AuthorB.Bras.com. Click here to view the
Photo Gallery
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Giveaway
Marlo Schalesky is an award-winning author of ten books, including "Wrestling with Wonder: A Transformational Journey Through the Life of Mary." A regular speaker and columnist, she has also published nearly 1,000 articles in various Christian magazines, including "Focus on the Family," "Today’s Christian Woman," "In Touch," and "Marriage Partnership." Marlo lives with her husband, six young children, nine horses, two dogs, five cats, two parakeets, ten rabbits, two chinchillas, three hamsters, and a bunch of fish in a log home in Salinas, California.
