“Control is an illusion. No one has it. I don't even have it. You can't wish for control you can only learn to play your part in a world where nothing is truly certain. And you do have a part to play. ”

“Which one of them would make you the most sad if you had to live your life without him?”

“You shouldn't imagine things that you haven't a shred of proof happened...”

“What's there to remember if not the good things?”

“I'm not sure why God made us the way He did... As to why we're here, well, I think maybe we're here to learn to love Him. To learn to love God and to want to be with Him. I think we're here to cultivate our longing for heaven. 'Luke sighed. 'Heaven,' he said, 'seems like a long, long way off, Dad.'Jack nodded. 'It does. But I think God gives us glimpses of heaven from time to time to help up nurture the desire... I see glimpses every spring when the earth renews itself. And sometimes I see glimpses in a worship service when I'm singing about Jesus and all of a sudden I feel like I'm right there in His arms.”

“The past hadn't been erased just because a new future had been handed it.”

“Everything beautiful has a story it wants to tell'" she said reading aloud the store's tagline at the top of the form.. "I love that.”

“The person who completes your life, is not so much the person who shares all the years of your existence, but rather, the person who made your life worth living -- no matter how long or short a time you are given to spend with them.”

“I used to think mercy meant showing kindness to someone who didn't deserve it, as if only the recipient defined the act. The girl in between has learned that mercy is defined by its giver. Our flaws are obvious, yet we are loved and able t love, if we choose, because there is that bit of the divine still smoldering in us.”

“Shut your eyes to the world of pain, and you also shut your eyes to the world of delight.”

“Oh, but it's our tears that make us human, Isabel.”