Reading Marilynne Robinson's Lila

She said, "I don't know what started me talking like this.  I don't want to go on with it, I truly don't."
"That's fine.  I just want to say one thing, though. If the Lord is more gracious than any of us can begin to imagine, and I'm sure He is, then your Doll and a whole lot of people are safe, and warm, and very happy.  And probably a little bit surprised. If there is no Lord, then things are just the way they look to us.  Which is really hard to accept.  I mean, it doesn't feel right.  There has to be more to it all, I believe. 
"Well, but that's what you want to believe, ain't it?"
"That doesn't mean it isn't true."

Firstly, it's hard for me to express my respect and admiration for Marilynne Robinson's writing.  I don't think there's any novelist living that comes close to her in depth and daring.  Despite the fact that I am writing about God in a mostly negative fashion lately - as a notion that has led us into some habits of thought about matter and the world that are maladaptive, I also see that the concept of God within the Christian tradition is more profound and more affirmative than philosophy.  Philosophy should never forget that, though it usually does.  And then along comes Marilynne Robinson and she's on a whole other level.