More than 50 Years in Wheelchair Give Her Dazzling Insights
Agoura Hills, Calif., July 2, 2018 – If you’re going to read only one book about heaven, Joni Eareckson Tada’s should be the one. As a quadriplegic since a diving accident in 1967 and the founder of a ministry to the disabled, she writes with an eternal perspective.
“Heaven: Your Real Home” releases from Zondervan on Oct. 9
In “Heaven: Your Real Home,” releasing from Zondervan on Oct. 9, the founder of Joni and Friends tells her readers about the blessings that came with her suffering:
“Looking back on fifty years of paralysis, fifty years in a wheelchair, I have no regrets. Absolutely none. Everything else, everything this world has to offer pales – fades to less than nothing – in comparison to daily companionship with the Son of God and the prospect of being Home with Him forever.”
“Heaven” was first published in 1995, but Tada decided to update and re-release the book because she had experienced so much more of life since the first release.
“The longer you journey with your eyes on heaven, the more you begin to see,” she writes in the preface to the new edition.
In the early days of her paralysis, she was fascinated by heaven because she would be healed there. Thinking about heaven became an escape from reality for her. But her perception of heaven has changed as she has gained spiritual maturity.
She thought in 1995 – and she believes even more now – that heaven isn’t just a place but also a person, and that person is Jesus. He has prepared for us a place that is more real than life on earth.
“Heaven is not some never-never land of thin, ghostly shapes and clouds,” she writes. “It’s not a place where you can poke your finger through people, only to discover that they are spacey spirit beings you can’t really hug or hold. No way!”
Instead, heaven is more real than we can imagine. It is too grand for the human mind to comprehend, too wondrous for our language to describe.
Joni Eareckson Tada
In her updated version, Tada takes great pains to show the connection between living life on earth and our capacity for joy in heaven. “Everything we do down here on earth – every godly response to a trial, every drastic little obedience – has a direct bearing on our capacity to experience the highest degrees of joy in heaven,” she writes.
“My husband, Ken, will be a thousand times more ‘Ken’ than he ever was in flesh and blood,” she writes. “You will exclaim to your loved one, ‘Wow, this is what I loved in you for so long!’ for you will see him or her as God intended all along. Until we are there, doing what God purposed for us from the beginning, we will be like the caterpillar writhing to be free of the cocoon, to breathe the celestial air.”
For more information about “Heaven: Your Real Home,” please visit https://www.zondervan.com/heaven-3.
Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the world’s leading international advocates for people affected by disability. A diving accident in 1967 left her, then 17, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. After two years of rehabilitation, she emerged with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations. She founded Joni and Friends in 1979, which quickly grew to provide Christ-centered programs to special needs families, churches, and communities. Joni survived stage III breast cancer in 2010, has written more than 50 books, and still keeps a very active ministry schedule. For additional information, please visit http://www.joniandfriends.org/press-kit/.
Zondervan is a world leading Bible publisher and provider of Christian communications. Zondervan, part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., delivers transformational Christian experiences through its bestselling Bibles, books, curriculum, academic resources and digital products. The Company’s products are sold worldwide and translated into nearly 200 languages. Zondervan offices are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For additional information, please visit www.zondervan.com.
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