Redeeming Love

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you will have realized that I love to read, but that my taste in books is anything but intellectual. I have to think all day long at work; I'm not really interested in reading books "for fun" that take a great deal of concentration and thought. I don't want to be depressed when a book is over, and I don't want to spend a lot of time reading any one book. Learning something is ok, but don't make me work too hard at it, and entertain me in the process.

One genre I've explored lately has been Christian fiction. Most of these books are written by women, and I'm sure the audience is mostly female as well. They are largely romance novels with chase heroines who discover faith as well as love. They are generally right on par, literature wise, with the paperback novels you buy in the grocery store or Wal-Mart, some of which (especially lately, those written by Debbie Macomber) are also on my reading list. This past weekend however, I found one that is a step above that. It was still an easy read with a happy ending, but the characters were well developed, the story compelling and while the end was never really in doubt, the story was anything but sacchrine sweet. The books was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It was the Biblical book of Hosea re-written and set in Gold Rush California. In both books the hero follows God's command and takes a prostitute as his wife. In both books, the prostitute leaves him several times over, and he seeks her out and brings her back.

It was interesting to read this story of a woman who keeps fighting against all the good someone is trying to give her and who, much as she hates her old life, isn't ready to give it all up. How much do I fight against what is good for me, what God wants for me?