Choosing to See is Mary Beth Chapman’s autobiographical account of her life, particularly concerning her daughter’s death. She shares her story to encourage readers to view their lives from God’s perspective and choose to see God’s goodness amid tragedy.
Mary Beth begins her story with the day her adopted 5-year-old daughter, Maria, died as a result of a car accident where her son, Will, drove the car. She then provides some background about herself and her husband, Steven, before launching into a more detailed account of her life. Beginning with incidents from her childhood that shaped her personality and her tendency towards perfectionism, she moves on to meeting and marrying Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven has a very different personality and outlook on life. He’s more easy-going, isn’t worried about being late to events and is more spontaneous. This causes many challenges in their marriage.
Mary Beth dreams of a well-planned and organised life, where she can feel safe in a controlled environment. Marrying Steven and having to make many adjustments to fit in with his music career is difficult. She becomes pregnant before she is ready to have children, and Steven is often away performing at concerts.
Later, as Steven’s career expands, they become involved in helping people adopt orphan children from China, eventually adopting three children themselves. Her story moves forward to the day of Maria’s death. Long descriptions of the days, weeks and months after Maria’s death follow, and how various members of the family deal with the tragedy. While this is understandably important to the family, it becomes a little repetitive. The book finishes about eighteen months later.
Mary Beth, along with co-author Ellen Vaughn, do a good job of structuring and telling an emotionally honest story while bringing out valuable insights into grief and the various ways the family experience the comfort of God.
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