When God Comes Near

Megan Gaddis was poised for a life of greatness. As a twenty-six years old, she had graduated from Vanderbilt University and enjoyed the single life of friends, meaningful work, and family. In the spring of 2007 she began having strange memory lapses. After a seemingly endless battery of medical testing, Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, diagnosed Ms. Gaddis with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal, degenerative brain disease so rare that it strikes fewer than one in 100,000,000 young people. For the sixteen months between the onset of her symptoms and her death, Megan bore up with startling grace while her family struggled with the incomprehensible diagnosis. They were surrounded by the love of their community, praying for a miracle for beautiful young Megan. Megan's mother, Marcia, began posting journal entries on a website devoted to patient care. The stream of writing that resulted went beyond Megan's failing health, to chronicle a family's thorny path from suffering and loss to transcendence and deeper faith. That chronicle forms the basis for When God Comes Near. The resulting tapestry provides insights - both personal and universal - into questions that have challenged people of faith for generations. Why does a loving and all-powerful God allow suffering? Why am I chosen to suffer? Where is God when I need Him the most? In sharing her journey of faith through unspeakable circumstances, Marcia Gaddis weaves scripture, her daughter's diary, literature, and her own poetic revelations into a narrative of great scope.