For the past few years, I've been hearing a lot of buzz about a certain book - Redeeming Love.
Having never read a romance novel before, I imagine this sets the bar pretty high. To sum up, a righteous man falls in love with a "soiled dove" of a prostitute whose heart is hardened completely towards men. After rescuing her from the bondage and physical abuse of her brothel, he marries her and takes her home as his wife. She doubts his love for her, feels unworthy of love, and rejects his love by repeatedly abandoning him whether to return to her old life or seemingly selflessly leave him alone and free to find a more suitable, worthy partner.
It's pretty intense.
The intensity is only magnified by the fact that while it's billed as a historical romance novel, the entire book is a direct allegory for the book of Hosea in the Bible. The book of Hosea, a story about a prophet and his prostitute bride, is an allegory for the love between Jesus Christ and his bridegroom, the church.
Oh boy - a double allegory - for this left-brained gal. And I still
Long story short, I started this 500-ish page novel on Saturday night around 10pm. I finished it today, Monday, a little after lunchtime. Almost every page of my borrowed book is tear-stained from the beauty of undeserved, freely flowing love embodied in Michael Hosea, a simple farmer who loves his wife, despite her horrid past and in spite of herself.
I know I'm pregnant, and I'm turning into my mother with a chronic case of tears, but I defy anyone to read this book and not get caught up in it. I double dog dare you.
You'll finish it with more than the warm fuzzies. You'll finish it feeling redeemed, no matter what your past contains.
Thank you, Jesus.
Imagined up by
1 comments:
I have read it. It's powerful.
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