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The Miracle 'Happens in the Breaking'

February 15, 2017
Ann Voskamp

Ann Voskamp

Ann Voskamp, author of the bestselling book One Thousand Gifts, was having a difficult time writing another book.

On her farm with her family in Ontario, she felt the weight of the world on her. Harsh memories gripped her. She was afraid as she thought of the future.

Then one day a molded clay image arrived in a package with no return address. That turned the tide for her and inspired her to write her new book, The Broken Way.

Voskamp, who will be a keynote speaker at this summer’s Inspire 2017 conference scheduled for Aug. 3-5 in Detroit, Mich., was pleasantly surprised but puzzled by the gift package, having no idea at the time who sent it.

She writes of carefully opening the box and lifting out something — it fit in her palm — that was wrapped in tissue paper. As she did this, a note fell out. “Saw it and thought of you,” it said.

Someone had sent an amazing gift, a holy offering that Voskamp discovered as she unwrapped the “thin swaddling” of tissue. Inside was an image of the Last Supper.

It featured “a bent Jesus kneeling with his disciples, each of them kneeling before their own small cup and darkened loaf of bread,” wrote Voskamp.

Voskamp examined the image closely, noticing the expressions on the faces of Jesus and his disciples and their frozen gestures. But something, she wrote, was left in the box. Rooting around, she found tiny pieces, one of them a tiny hand of Christ.

“The hands of Jesus are snapped right off. The Jesus has no hands,” she wrote. “I sit down. Jesus’ hands lie there in front of all the disciples, two hands broken off, lying there, palms open like an invitation.”

Later, when she was doing a book signing about a year ago for The Broken Way in Grand Rapids, Mich., Voskamp was finally able to met the person who had sent the Last Supper scene.

The mystery mailer was Louise Sonderfan, a member of First Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., who had come to the book signing and was introduced to Voskamp by a friend from Zondervan, Voskamp’s publisher.

After the signing, they met for something to eat, and Sonderfan told Voskamp her story.

“I came a few years ago to the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing and attended a small group that Ann was speaking to,” said Sonderfan in an interview. “She has a very warm style of talking. She is very humble and open. She felt like a friend. 

“She seemed very sweet and was extremely honest about her life, about what she does and how she feels. I was very moved by her.”

On the way home that day Sonderfan stopped at Global Gifts, a store that specializes in selling items made by small-business artisans from around the world.

“I’m not sure why I went in there, but as I was in there I saw a beautiful clay scene of Jesus serving communion — the bread and wine — to all of his disciples,” she said. “It was made in Peru, and I decided to buy it.”

She then returned to the Calvin College Prince Center, where she believed Voskamp was staying, and asked if she could leave the package for her. She was disappointed to learn that Voskamp had already checked out.

Sonderfan then decided to drop the package off at Voskamp’s publisher. She was told they would send it to Voskamp, and she left it with them. 

In transit, the fragile image broke, which became for Voskamp a metaphor for her new book.

“I really never thought of the clay scene again, until I went to her book signing and my friend from the publisher told me that Ann wanted to meet me,” said Sonderfan.

“When we met, Ann said that I saved her life and that the package came at the right time and really changed her.”

As they met at the restaurant, Voskamp told her that she had been having a difficult time writing The Broken Way.

“But when she saw those broken pieces and thought of how Jesus had broken himself for all of the world, it just clicked and she was able to go on writing the book,” said Sonderfan.

Sonderfan says she had no idea what the clay image would mean to Voskamp. “But I’m so grateful to God to see how his hand was in all of this. I marvel at what happened. God wanted those broken arms for that time at that place,” she said.

In her book, Voskamp writes: “I hold the broken Last Supper in front of me, a Jesus with broken hands. What did Jesus do after he gave thanks? . . . Jesus embracing and giving thanks . . . that preceded the miracle.

“But why had I not been awakened to the denotation of the miracle before?” What was the actual miracle?

“The miracle happens in the breaking.”

Voskamp will share more of her thoughts at Inspire 2017. To learn more or to register, visit crcna.org/Inspire2017.