Redeeming Love

Redeeming Love-

(this post is about a week late, sorry guys)

I finished Redeeming Love last night at 3:30 am. This was my second time to read the novel and I am more convinced than ever that this is my favorite Christian romance novel. To say that it is my favorite book is a dangerous thing- what about all the others? And you know me, I’m so indecisive, even with which books I award places to.

            Rivers really astounds me. I wrote her a letter actually. Rather than writing a “review” or journal immediately following my completion, I ripped out a college ruled sheet of paper from my journal I keep by my bedside and wrote her a letter, thanking her for being an obedient servant of Christ and allowing Him to speak through her writing. Whether she will read it or not, I have no idea, haha, but she is a big name in Christian writing and I felt like I have a duty to encourage other writers- like she needs it with such a successful book haha.  It is such a powerful, emotional, and extremely relatable-to-life book. I read her author’s note at the end of the book which talks of her process of writing it. She gives a few details about her walk with Christ, and  gives Him full credit for everything accomplished in the novel- the details, names, place, time, characteristics. She tells how her own testimony is nothing like Angels- almost the complete opposite.  She grew up in a Christian home, and though she initially believed she was a Christian, it was a very long process in understanding what this meant and truly grasping the concept of grace.

            She says writing was her escape, her control. After her conversion, and re commitment to Christ, she says that He asked her to give up writing for a period.  She didn’t know if she would ever write again. But she did and she says she commited all of her writing to the glory of Christ and in furthering His kingdom. And she has. I love that I can connect with this book in a new way every time I read it. Whatever stage of life I am at, I can come to this novel knowing that it can still relate to me- even if I’m seventy.

             I have decided to make reading Redeeming Love a Christmas tradition, and I couldn’t have picked a better book to read annually. I wrote to Rivers that one can rediscover the concept of grace by walking alongside the character Angel, as it is such a hard concept to grasp and I’m not sure if I ever will. But I love trying, and I love seeing a breathing interpretation of Christ in Micheal Hosea- how he forgives, how he loves Angel relentlessly, how he refuses to associate her sins with who she is. As a single woman, this novel points directly to Christ and reminds me He is all I need and my portion forever rather than leaving me desperate and lonely for the perfect man as many love stories do.  Reading it this second time has truly drawn me into Christ once more, opening my eyes to His beauty and majesty. It draws attention to the gifts He so willingly gives that we all to often take for granted- friendship, the earth, sunrises, sounds of nature, the good in people, the state of brokenness, forgiveness, mercy, His Son.  Wow. I am so in awe of you Father.

            There’s a different reason Angel leaves each time she does- resistence, fear of being vulnerable, pride, and the last an attempted act of selflessness for Micheal. In the last time that she flees, God tells Micheal that he has become her idol, her god, and that she has to find him in this last retreat. I had completely forgotten the part in this final retreat where Angel has the dream about Christ, and it brought me to tears. I thought I would put it up here for you to see:

            She looked up and saw Micheal standing before her. A small flame burned where his heart was. No, Beloved. His mouth hadn’t moved, and the voice was not his. The flame grew larger and brighter,spreading until his entire body was radiant with it. Then the light separated from Micheal and came the last few feet toward her. It was a man, glorious and magnificent,light streaming from him in all directions.

“Who are you?” She whispered, terrified “Who are you?”

Yahweh, Al Shaddai, Jehovah- Mekoddishkem, El Elyon, El Olam, Elohim…

Th names kept coming, moving together like music, rushing through her blood filler her. She trembled in fear and could not move.  He reached out and touched her and she felt warmth encompassing her and the fear dissolving away. She looked at down at herself and she was clean and clothed in white.

“Then I am dead.”

That you may live.

            Blinking, she looked up again and saw the man of light covered with her filth. “No!” she wept.  “Oh God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll take it back. I’ll do anything….”  Yet even as she reached out, the defilement disappeared and he stood before her perfect again.

 I am the way, Sarah, follow me.