Shemaiah Gonzalez

Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English Literature (B.A.), Intercultural Ministry (MAPS), and Creative Non-Fiction Writing (MFA). She thrives on moments where storytelling, art, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in Busted Halo and America Magazine, among others. Her essay collection, Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight, was published with Zondervan/HarperCollins in 2025. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband and their two sons.

Four Hidden Places I’ve Found God

In my practice of looking for God, it’s rarely in the spotlight moments that I find him. It’s in the small, hidden places that God chooses to reveal himself....

Lamentation: The Weight of Grief

Niccolò dell’Arca’s Mourning over the Dead Christ, often simply called Lamentation, moves us into the depths of Good Friday’s grief. (See a video of this piece of art below...

Waving to a Stranger

Standing in a piazza in Lucca, Italy, dappled sunlight shining down on me, I licked gelato al limone while my husband peeked in storefront windows. Our boys traded licks...

Imaginative Prayer: Lunch with Christ

As a child I felt God’s presence strongly. I remember digging in my sandbox with Jesus or reading a picture book with him. It seemed every good thing was...

Finding God in the Birds

Growing up in Inner City Los Angeles, I hadn’t really seen a bird that wasn’t a pigeon unless I went to the beach. You know what they call pigeons...

The Light of Grace Is Always Shining

A couple of afternoons a week, I bring my work to a local coffee shop. It gives me a chance to get out of the home office, attack a...