I recently read the book 66 Love Letters from author and psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb. This is a literary departure from Dr. Crabb’s previous works. This volume is “presented as a dialog between one man and God.” (quote from book sleeve)
The structure is simple: each chapter covers one of the 66 books of the Bible. This personalizes the scriptural stories to expose God’s encompassing desire to have a relationship with mankind and to hone in on Jesus’ role of redeeming us to himself.
I processed several thoughts and adjusted my goals for this book as I read along:
~ At first, I hoped that this would be a non-stop amazing journey through the themes of scripture but after a few chapters found myself hoping that the next chapter(s) would be better. This didn’t happen and was rather frustrating.
~ I then decided to read each chapter as a distinct conversation. One book made up of 66 individual writings… much like the Bible itself. After making this jump, the stories came to life.
~ As I read along, I decided to read chapters along with my daily devotion time. For instance, as I read of Israel’s conquests in the Bible book of Joshua, I took the opportunity to read the equivalent chapter in 66 Love Letters. The text was only 4 pages long and gave way to another layer of devotional thought in my daily reading.
If you are looking for a book to read from cover to cover, this will seem like a compilation of scattered stories. However, if you use 66 Love Letters as a companion to your daily Scripture readings (especially if you are reading through the Bible in a year), it is a rather enlightening study. As a pastor, I plan to keep this volume with my study materials and commentaries to aid in my sermon/lesson preparations.
Last, I did go to Dr. Crabb’s website and noted that there is a study guide available. I did not request the free study guide but am hopeful that a companion read would be helpful to get the most from this (almost) 400 page volume.
