A sweet young boy looks down upon a frog. It is a moment of delight for him–in life, nature, and everything that speaks to him of goodness and truth. He cares not that his shoes are old and worn out. He is released from whatever it is of poverty or contradiction that he must face. His destiny has been defined for him; his life is affirmed. Fate will not overcome him.

Certain patriarchs and matriarchs, poets and sages, lovers and apostles, slaves and hymn writers, and prisoners and pilgrims make their contribution to this volume. Their lives were taken up with journeys of faith and passages of profound significance for them and many others. They struggled bravely against oppression and refused to surrender. They were ordinary men and women of complex emotion and conflicting thought. Yet their movement was always forward to a welcoming God, the one who had always been