Books

I'm reading probably my 6th or 7th Francine Rivers book, Leota's Garden. I know this is very geeky, but when I get hooked on a good book, I stay up WAY too late snuggled under the covers reading--and it's such a small pleasure! If you see me during the daylight hours, I have bags under my eyes and I'm walking around in a sleep deprivation fog, but just before bed I'll sip on a Mountain Dew and settle in...

I think I've finally figured out why I love Francine Rivers books so much. Well, a couple of reasons, actually. First, she deals with Christian issues in a real world. She's not preachy, but she takes on cultural dilemmas (abortion, rape, dementia, abandonment), and weaves stories from this mess of life about how God heals the wounds that no one else can. Her characters are complex, developed, and could be friends of mine--or even me. Redeeming Love, an adaptation of the story of Hosea that she wrote as a metaphor for her own salvation experience, is probably the most vivid image in my mind's eye of the way the Holy Spirit pursues his chosen. Goodness, I've been there! The book kind of drives home the futility of struggling against a holy, jealous God. I. love. it.

Here's the new thing I've noticed that I like about her work, though. It's in the way she uses text features. In her books, when a character is struggling and crying out to God, the Holy Spirit speaks Scripture to the character in italics. So for example, this widow, Leota, is feeling sorrow for past transgressions, and the reader sees, "Take heart, beloved, for I have overcome the world." The reminders of who God is compared to what we face are just constant in Rivers' books. So when I'm reading about Leota and worrying about--oh, I don't know, any of the zillion things I worry about--I'm also reminded to take heart! He has overcome the world! I love that the Word of God is living, and active, and confronts my own troubles even when I absorb it through the storyline of some fiction person with totally different troubles.

Anyway, there's my plug. I need to go read now!!