Why These 8 Books Belong on Your 2025 Reading List

1. The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson

In this book, Andrew Peterson takes us on an emotional journey, in addition to one which spans quite a lot of places, including Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, England, Sweden, and the Holy Land. Through the method, we come away with greater insights into faith and depression, in addition to what it means to cultivate places with a Kingdom mindset.   

Without knowing it on the time, Peterson was helping me to remove assumptions I had about living in and caring for the world. For some reason, I had adopted the concept God was more occupied with spiritual matters than in how I cared for a patch of land or stewarded a house. But this book helped me begin to see that there isn’t a separation.     

What stood out to me essentially the most, though, was Peterson’s vulnerability. He shared his heart through stories about his childhood and his experience with depression. As a reader, I felt this openness and rawness. Lots of us are liable to putting up façades, especially throughout the church, pretending that we’re okay once we aren’t. We cannot do this with God, though, for He sees us and loves us at the same time as we sit in darkness. He is working once we don’t see it, like a planted seed that’s waiting for spring.  

Bonus:
In addition to being a singer and songwriter, Andrew Peterson has written an enticing fantasy series called The Wingfeather Saga, which is loved by children and adults. His other memoir-style book, Adorning the Dark, is about community and creativity.   

2. This Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness by Sarah Clarkson  

I even have read many books in regards to the problem of evil and suffering that present pat answers and strict theological systems to clarify the hurt we experience. Many of those books, despite their orthodoxy, lack life and compassion. This is why Sarah Clarkson’s book was refreshing to me because she approaches theodicy from the attitude of the story – her story and the Great Story of redemption.  

She described her struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with honesty, not being afraid to point out how the illness led her to wrestle with God. It was not through having all of the answers to her questions that she saw the goodness and love of God. Rather, it was by encountering Him through the sweetness that was visible round her.

I gleaned quite a few insights about beauty, hospitality, creativity, and the wonder of the church calendar from this book. However, the best gift Sarah’s words gave me was the reminder to note. To notice birdsong, a tree swaying, or the blessing of a book. All of those are abnormal parts of our lives that we too often overlook, but they will function windows of God’s love. And we’d like those reminders when life becomes dark, whether due to a physical or mental illness, the death of a loved one, or turmoil on this planet. We need those little gifts that time to the reality that Jesus got here to heal us and the world of its brokenness. One day soon, He will return to make all things recent.   

Photo Credit: Unsplash/AlexandraFuller