From Closer Than Your Skin: Unwrapping the Mystery of Intimacy with God:

Every day the Holy Spirit is sowing God’s words for those who can understand them. Whether his words bring salvation or develop relationship with him is not worth fighting over. Both matter. He is looking for the good soil of an open heart and a listening ear. When he says something to you, it will be in your own language, significant in a personal and specific kind of way.

Let me tell you a story…

When I was about ten years old, I loved to get mail, be it a birthday card, World magazine or just about anything with my name on it. I think most kids are like that. It’s like finding treasure.

One day, as I rode on our tire swing in the backyard, I decided to get the mail. I walked toward the road, but before I got far, I decided I didn’t want to check the mailbox. Just as suddenly as I had thought of the mail and what treasure could be waiting for me inside it, I lost interest in going to see. So I went into the house instead.

A few minutes later, I heard a loud crash. I ran outside to find our black mailbox smashed, lying on the lawn, it’s post snapped in half and a car speeding away up the street.

That mailbox could have been me. I had no reason to not get the mail, so why didn’t I go to the mailbox? What stopped me? Or who? I’m confident God in His mercy spared my life that day. No one can convince me otherwise.

Susan D. Hill writes of a similar experience in her book, Closer Than Your Skin: Unwrapping the Mystery of Intimacy with God. Hill tells a tale of how she and a friend narrowly escaped certain death on a New Hampshire highway – and how God used a skittish rabbit to do it.

Closer Than Your Skin is a familiar story found in many other books: a woman’s faltering marriage, dealing with an alcoholic spouse, disappointments with God and a plethora of church commitments, but it’s Hill’s account of how she believes God speaks to her with visions and dreams that sets the book apart. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that so radically supports hearing from God in such unique ways. Skeptics will certainly scoff at such a thing. God using a rabbit to keep you off the road. Humph. But Hill knows better. And so do I. I will never forgot seeing that broken mailbox and how He protected me. Somethings you just can’t understand unless it happens to you.

Reading Hill’s book is like listening to a girlfriend share her journey of faith at your kitchen table. It’s great conversation. I look forward to reading what she writes next.

Thanks to the generosity of WaterBrook Press, I have two copies of Closer Than Your Skin to give away. If you would like one, please leave a comment below. Be sure to leave your correct email address, so I can contact you. All email address will remain private.

And if you are interested in chatting with other readers of Closer Than Your Skin, there is a new Yahoo! group. Click here to join. The author’s website is here.

Contest closed. Thanks everyone. I’ll announce the winners soon.