From The Back Pew:

I would like to recommend a book.

It is called “Life’s That Way,” written by actor Jim Beaver.

The book is a collection of e-mails written by Beaver to family and friends on the heels of his wife’s lung cancer diagnosis in 2003. Most of his e-mails were written late at night before Beaver went to bed. The messages were written after the dust settled from the day’s activities, and he was able to write without being disturbed.

The e-mails simply begin as nightly messages to his family and friends, updating them on the condition of his wife and the cancer that would ultimately take her life, and the progress of his daughter, Maddie, who had been diagnosed with autism months before.

Over time, however, the messages were forwarded, and more people began to take note of what Beaver was doing.

Before long, he had an audience of thousands.

Beaver is best known for playing Ellsworth on the Emmy Award-winning HBO series “Deadwood,” and as Bobby Singer on “Supernatural.”

Cecily Adams, his wife, was a cast director on shows like “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “That ’70s Show” and performed on stage and on television.

The couple had their entire lives ahead of them.

Their daughter had just been born, they had great careers and were just starting work on a new house that was close enough to her office that Adams was able to visit her daughter every day at lunch time.

Their experience reminds me of the often misquoted verse from Job: “God giveth, and God taketh away,” which actually reads: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

While researching the verse, the verse preceding it caught my attention; it is from Job 1:18-19: “While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’”

Certainly, Beaver and Adams were enjoying their lives together, feasting and drinking wine when all of what they had suddenly was swept away.

Beaver wrote, “That even the best life can be hollowed out in a moment or in a week or in four months.”