Growing up evangelical, Elizabeth Jeffries was certain about how the world worked. She had a clear understanding of scripture, sin and God’s will, and she carried this same certitude into her graduate study of cell biology. There, rather than discover the simplicity of the natural world, she instead discovered the simplistic lenses through which she was viewing the world all along.

In her first book, a work of deep reflection and vulnerable storytelling, Elizabeth invites readers to candidly tour her conservative Christian upbringing and the doctrines that shaped her identity. With grace and intelligence, she critically engages her past without condemning it. She brilliantly draws from her insights in the laboratory and offers a new set of metaphors from the field of cell biology to help reframe concepts like identity, community, certainty, perfectionism and truth. The result is a rich tapestry of the scientific and the sacred.