Courtney Ellis is a pastor at Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo, California. She is the author of six books, including Looking Up: A Birder's Guide to Hope Through Grief. Courtney hosts The Thing with Feathers, a podcast about birds and hope. She lives in Orange County, California, with her husband and three children.

"Weathering Change brims with wisdom and encouragement for navigating life's many and often challenging transitions. Drawing attentively and insightfully from God's two books of revelation-the Bible and creation-Courtney Ellis offers practical grounding for finding our footing and even thriving in these turbulent times."

"Courtney Ellis's Weathering Change teems with a tumble of life: sage thrashers and ocean tides, falcons and microbes, bears and goldfinches. Amid this kaleidoscopic tour of the earth's wonders, Ellis reveals a shimmering thread of wisdom about managing change. At a moment in history when change feels overwhelming and pervasive, Ellis's witty and gentle prose brings nature's wisdom to bear on our human experience, drawing from her own family life and pastoral ministry as well. Spend a little time with this congenial companion, reveling in delight and wonder and God's provision, and you will feel more at ease with change-and less alone."

"Weathering Change is a wonder and a deep comfort for all who know how change can weather us. Courtney Ellis's refreshingly unusual writing seamlessly weaves readings of creation, Scripture, and some of her own candidly told story into the profound mystery of living in God's world with all its glory and its groaning. Her wise curiosity and her love of nature in general and birds in particular are what make this book about the challenges that change brings to us all so beautifully original. I trust it will find and bless a wide audience of both believers and questioners."

"There are plenty of self-help books out there about change that offer trite, one-size-fits-all answers. This is not one of them. Courtney Ellis takes what feels like a novel and deeply refreshing approach-to let the wisdom of the natural world guide us through the ebb and flow of change. She approaches the topic not with soundbites and cookie-cutter answers but with reverence, nuance, vulnerability, pastoral wisdom, and more than a dash of humor. This book is a gift!"

"Change is hard for most of us. But Courtney Ellis invites us to look with curiosity and wonder at patterns in the natural world and God's unending promises to remind us that, whatever changes come our way, we can adapt and maybe even find delight."

"How do we make sense of a world in which change and decay and even despair seem to be all around us? Weathering Change is a theodicy, but a strangely hopeful one, a clever metaphysic masquerading as an everyday devotional. Courtney Ellis seamlessly alternates between simple daily living and the sublimity of nature in a manner that recalls Terry Tempest Williams."

"Transitions are a tough and awkward constant in life. How we handle transitions builds resilience for those to come. Through hilarious personal stories, practical advice, and descriptions of the natural world, Courtney Ellis opens our eyes to see God has not left us to our own devices. In his graciousness, he has revealed ways through his marvelous creation for us to navigate this world and all it throws at us. Not only did I learn much about birds and bears and even ice in Weathering Change, but I finished the book fortified to take on change myself as an opportunity to grow."

"As a nature lover, I found it refreshing and encouraging to read Courtney Ellis's exposition of the myriad ways God's dealings with us are reflected in how he has ordered his creation. Caterpillars, birds, changing seasons, migrations, prairies, and wind-all become metaphors for God's work in our lives. A beautiful and inspiring read."

"Ellis has written another exquisite contemplation; shelve this alongside her earlier works, books by Anne Lamott, and Barbara Mahany's The Book of Nature (2023)."

Publisher: IVP

Pub date: 2026-02-17

Length: 216 pages