An Introduction to Girl Meets God by Lauren F. Winner

by Pastor Nancy R. Easton

For those of us who consider ourselves “born and bred Lutherans” and who have never strayed far from the faith of our fathers and mothers, Girl Meets God provides insight into a journey of faith we haven’t taken.

The author Lauren F. Winner tells her story of both her life in Orthodox Judaism as well as her conversion to Christianity, not to mention that lengthy period of time in transition from one faith to the other. What I find compelling is that Winner does not simply toss away Judaism, considering it false or unfaithful. As she grows in her Christian faith, the beauty and meaning of the Jewish religion lend richness to her Christianity. And her Christian beliefs and understandings add depth to her reflections on Judaism. (Maybe we would do well to study Judaism and its history and ritual more fully, so that we might better appreciate our Judeo-Christian identity.)

In a world of religious diversity, which can easily tend toward division, we witness in one person a coming together of two of the world’s major religions. This is not a smorgasbord faith, as if Lauren chose a little bit of this and a little bit of that from the buffet table of religion. For Lauren does indeed become a follower of Christ. But her years in Judaism, ironically, prepared her for that conversion, stoked the fires of wanting to know God more, and gave a shape to her Christianity for which she is very grateful.

While many vignettes within Girl Meets God are memorable, one of my favorite parts of the book is when Lauren first learns the Lord’s Prayer at a summer camp. One of the few Jewish girls at the camp, she was completely unfamiliar with the wording of that prayer our Lord taught us. Her camp counselor, having observed her unfamiliarity with it, decided to teach her that prayer. While you and I are used to figuring out whether to use “trespasses” or “debts” or “sins” and know Roman Catholics leave off the final doxology in the prayer until later in the Mass, just imagine our not knowing this prayer at all! And then, hearing it for the first time, mulling over the words, and coming up with not only an interesting but incredibly profound interpretation of “Thy will be done”! Winner, hearing the words “Thy will be done,” thought Thy was the subject, and will was the verb. So she prayed that Thy would be done. Winner then wrote: “Sometimes in church I think about that still, I think maybe that is what we should be praying for, not just that God’s will be done, but that everything that is God’s, everything that is His, everything that is Thy, will be done.”

Girl Meets God allows us to contemplate how far afield our faith journey may take us, and yet how close to home we really are. Because home is wherever God is present with us.