When the publisher sent me the book cover, warning me it was not what I might have expected, I opened the file anticipating being disappointed. Instead, I stared in awe at the Spirit inspired art by Joseph Sapulich, Art Director of Tyndale. Following are some of his thoughts.

The saturated colors of this cover contrast with the stark graphic of a kid looking an ethereal sea. Lost and abandoned, it is a Castaway Kid. The water represents a vast expanse. Like so many people who are wandering through life aimlessly--the kid is searching and waiting, looking for a beacon of hope while being lost and alone is a sea of people. At first glance we see a boy but perhaps it is a man, yet it could be a girl or a woman intentionally hiding her femininity under baggy clothes. Are the hands merely behind Castaway Kid or are they shackled, handcuffed? Whoever it is they represent a soul that has been discarded, fading into the clouds, unsure of their place in this world. In the distance is the lighthouse representing Hope. The sweeping movement of the texture imbedded into the image creates a sense of a soul in motion. To some viewers, it is a soul emerging as the warm glow of Hope pushes away the darkness from a soul being saved. To some viewers, the movements are of a darkness engulfing, suffocating, drowning a lost soul and snuffing out the light from the lighthouse. Readers have asked about the faces in the back of coat. They were not intentional and I only saw them when they were pointed out to me! Castaway Kid touched me deeply. Having never met r.b. mitchell, I feel that I have a bond with him—not in the sense of sharing the same journey of life in an orphanage—but that of sharing pain and dealing with loved ones trapped under their own burdens and problems. His words, to me, are about surviving the storms of life and making it safe to shore. It is about finding we are not alone and that God is always there with arms open wide and ready to pour into our hearts more love than we could ever comprehend in a relationship that will never leave us alone and abandoned.