Book Review: When God Looked the Other Way

I’ve decided to start putting my reviews or thoughts about some of the books I read here on my blog, mostly so I can look back at them again when I’m trying to remember what I thought of a book. I also find that I tend to go through cycles, sometimes reading more, at other times painting more. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and not as much art, other than sketching birds and deer and other wildlife.

When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption, by Wesley Adamczyk

I found this to be a gripping, vivid, personal account of a part of history of which I was ignorant and which should not be forgotten. It made me realize how everything– home, family, freedom– could be taken from even a comfortable, seemingly secure middle-class life at the whim of an evil government. Reading this made me wonder about the possibility of this kind of thing happening to us or to our children or grandchildren, and that thought makes me reflect on the importance of having my hope and my trust truly in God, who can never be taken from me, rather than in possessions or our nice, comfortable home and lifestyle. I was also dismayed to read in the appendix of the duplicity and lack of integrity of the U.S. and British governments. That just reinforces my lack of confidence in any government not to choose expediency over justice when pressed by circumstances and choosing alliances.