She Does Not Fear the Snow (review)

She Does Not Fear the Snow by Bobbie Ann Cole

Bobbie Cole and her friend Terry were both on a quest to find new purpose and meaning when they toured Israel together in the spring of 2007. Bobbie wasn’t expecting anything from her visit to the King of Kings Church in Jerusalem. She was there simply because Terry really wanted to go and had cheerfully gone with her to her place of worship—a Jerusalem synagogue.

The almost electric current of love she experienced during the singing caught her entirely off-guard. Later, when several of the photos Terry took of the service turned out to capture not the congregation, stage, band, and overhead screen she had focused on, but a series of golden images resembling wings and flames, both women were puzzled and awed. Had there been angels in that service? Was God answering their prayers?

How God searched her out, planted her in a new home, and fulfilled deep desires she hadn’t even articulated is the moving story Bobbie Cole tells in her spiritual memoir She Does Not Fear the Snow. In it we meet a cast of characters as colorful as those in any novel. And we watch the unfolding of two love stories (one human, one divine) even as we see her grow as a Christian and navigate around the objections her family and friends put up to keep her from remarrying.

I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down! Cole’s writing was a highlight for me. The heart she puts into her vivid descriptions and detailed narratives made me feel like I was living the events: seeing the mysterious Iranian rug for the first time; peeking over her shoulder at emails as she and Butch began writing; feeling the resistance of her adult children to even meeting the man she was falling in love with; struggling with her as she tried to forgive, love, be gentle, patient.

I like how the chapters are divided into numbered mini-sections, each of which is a vignette or story on its own. There are lots of good places to stop if you don’t have long to read. And by employing these mini-stores she does a masterful job of showing what’s happening (vs. telling) leaving readers to draw their own conclusions about people and circumstances.

The message that comes through is of a God who sees, cares, and communicates His love in ways that many of us may not even recognize as divine communication. Anyone open to giving Him a try would be encouraged and inspired by Cole’s story.