Redeeming Love

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is an Excellent book! This should not have been surprising because she is known as an excellent writer, but I was honestly surprised at how quickly I devoured this book: 2 days. I absolutely loved getting to read this book. It is a "modern" a.k.a. 19th century retelling of the Biblical story of Hosea the prophet. If you don't know much about that story, I will try not to ruin the richness of the books plot for you, but suffice it to say it is a truly heart breaking and, at the same time, heart warming depiction of what True Love looks like (should look like) and a very accurate depiction of Christ's Love for us and how He pursues us and draws Him to Himself. After reading the beautiful tale, I found myself desiring the depth of love and relationship that the husband has for his wife in my own future marriage, as well as, and more importantly and immediately in, my current relationship with my Savior.

As a 22 year old female, I get on facebook and am overjoyed when I see all my girlfriends from high school, college, and just life in general getting engaged, married, and having the most adorable kids. At the same time, my heart aches a little because I have a God-given desire deep within me to become a wife and mother some day. Reading this book, however, broke my heart way more than any of those facebook posts ever could. Mainly because it was such a beautiful story of redemption, reconciliation, commitment, and the strength of love, and it reflects the love that Christ has for us in a deeply moving story. It represents the kind of love I desire to have one day that my heart aches for and at the same times, reminds me that I have that kind of love already in my First Love. Without giving the plot away, if there is any correct use of the facebook status "It's complicated" the relationship in this book pretty much covers it! All the while, this story depicts the sacrifice, dedication, and commitment that True Love is as supported by scripture. Watching this husband and wife interact brought me to tears on a few occasions because of how strong the love was, how committed, how forgiving, and simply how Godly. So much of 1 Corinthians 13 can be seen in the relationships depicted within this novel. I believe almost everyone has a desire within them to find a mate to spend their lives with. Ultimately, I believe, that is because through marriage as God designed it, more of His love for us can be tangibly, emotionally, and physically realized and more of His character can be created within us. To me, this book did a great job of representing marriage as, not necessarily something designed to just make you "happy", but rather in a more accurate light that marriage was intended to make you more like Christ and draw you even deeper into relationship with Himself.

While the relationships in the book are a more obvious mental image from which to draw from and take away from the book, I have to say that there was something more subtle that wrecked me when reading the book. Throughout the book, Francine Rivers gives her reader insight into the characters minds. The characters' personal thoughts are represented in italics. However, at times in the writing, the text becomes bolded indicating an outside voice speaking with the reader. Now, the first time I saw this, I realized quickly that it was a voice, God's voice speaking. However, later in the book that same format, that same font, that same bolding, was NOT God speaking…. But it was still a voice beckoning for the attention and action of the character. At first, I didn't realize the switch, and I was confused why God would be speaking so uncharacteristically. So, I read the statement again… and then… that was when the tears began to flow. In that moment, I realized how true that experience of rereading had been as insight into the spiritual realm.

As an alumni of Oral Roberts University, it is drummed into us to learn to hear the voice of God. At the time I was attending there, I felt I understood what that meant and that for the most part I was able to hear and distinguish His Voice from among all of the other worldly distractions vying for my attention. However, there are times when you think you hear Gods voice, and you might not have. When reading this random quote from the book, the importance of really being tuned into the correct Voice and being able to discern between the different voices vying for attention in your life became so clear. It was a beautiful thing to know and be reminded that I have the beautiful privilege to know God's voice. I have the ability to get to know him and learn to recognize the voice of the Creator of the Universe! I know that might seem like a trivial thing to some people, especially seasoned Christians who know without a doubt whey they hear God's voice. But to this recent college graduate, who is about to jump into her professional career, it was such a humbling experience to realize that I HAVE and have had the privilege to hear His voice and know without a doubt it is God even though there are still times I am less sure. The voices in this book, give the reader the chance to practice recognizing the voice of God, even in such a simple setting as a novel. That is one of the richest things one can learn in life.

Ultimately, this book paints as real a picture of redemption, love, reconciliation, forgiveness, and marriage as I have ever read (except the Bible). But I guess that makes sense based on the title: Redeeming Love.

READ IT!

DISCLAIMER: If you are a man who is brought to righteous anger due to hearing about, or in this case reading about, women being treated inappropriately or without respect, then I would NOT recommend you read this book. You will likely not get through the prologue much less the story. I would, however, desire to applaud you for your strength of conviction and desire to respect and protect women. There are women, even women like the women in this book, who need men like you to be there to protect, stand up for, and even love them. You are already so much like the husband and image of Christ in this book, Michael Hosea, than you will ever know. Thank you.

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