I kept hearing about this book, from our pastor, from the staff at church. It was calling me. I sat down and opened the cover. Determined to just finish. Who knew that the book would change me. God has this really awesome way of showing Himself to me through books. Redeeming Love is about a little girl who grows into a woman. She is broken from her childhood and the story details the devastation and heartbreak this little child goes through. From a earthy father that never wanted her, to a mother who sent her away when her father was around (who had married and had legitimate children of his own)- to being sold into prostitution and ultimately manipulated and raped as a child by grown adult men. It sickens me to think that things like this happen (The story was set in the late 1800's during the gold rush of California) even today.
Angel, in the novel, goes from man to man, to duchess to owner... finding her way to a brothel in Sacramento. She is well taken care of... as taken care of as one could be in her circumstances. She uses her femininity to please men who pay loads of gold for her time. She thinks of herself nothing more than a woman who was made to please men - as she was taught most of her life.
A man named Michael Hosea comes to town in search for a wife. Walking along the street one day, he spots Angel and all of her beauty. God has led him to her; for a reason he doesn't quite know.
He meets Angel - she is utterly turned off by him. He wants not to be pleased but to only talk with her. Ask her about her life, plead with her to leave and to marry him. She continues to push him away, but inside is torn by the possibility of a life outside of the one she knows so well. Michael makes more trips to see her and to try to make her come with him. He finally chooses to be done. To leave her since she won't budge on her decision. She fights with the duchess who then sends in her bodyguard to make Angel understand her place. Shes left almost dead from blows and beatings when Michael steps in, pays for her and takes her to his home.
He spends the next 2 years teaching her and showing her all the ways to be a woman and to stand on her own two feet. She falls in love with him slowly and with much relent. She decides the best thing for him is to leave him. To go back to town and create a life on her own, using the money that the Dutchess owes her.
Now, I won't spoil the ending. It's worth the read. But I do want to add that the entire time I was reading this God was begging me to listen. To listen intently to the words He has been trying to speak to me. To see a life that He wants for me. He continually tries to stir in my affections I have never known before.
This book was a great way for God to show me life and the love that He has for me, and the love that is possible through Christ.
Thank you Francine Rivers for that incredible book. Thank you Jesus for continually trying to turn my blindness into sight.
He spends the next 2 years teaching her and showing her all the ways to be a woman and to stand on her own two feet. She falls in love with him slowly and with much relent. She decides the best thing for him is to leave him. To go back to town and create a life on her own, using the money that the Dutchess owes her.
Now, I won't spoil the ending. It's worth the read. But I do want to add that the entire time I was reading this God was begging me to listen. To listen intently to the words He has been trying to speak to me. To see a life that He wants for me. He continually tries to stir in my affections I have never known before.
This book was a great way for God to show me life and the love that He has for me, and the love that is possible through Christ.
Thank you Francine Rivers for that incredible book. Thank you Jesus for continually trying to turn my blindness into sight.
