Redeeming Love review

I've been doing this 30 Day writing challenge this month. Each day I have a new random topic to write about. It's just something to get the creative juices flowing and it's been a nice break from some of the heavier writing I've been working on. This was one of the pieces I had to write and thought I'd share today. It really is a great book. I've read it at least five times now. I always find something new every time. 

A book that I loved, I mean LOVED, was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It's a beautiful story of a young girl who was born into the sins of her parents. She remembers the moment the fairly tale died for her and she saw that she was unwanted, unloved, and-unworthy. Nothing else she sought ever made that feeling go away. And as tragedy and horror continued to strike her life until she had no say so anymore and she became property of an abusive, manipulating, terrifyingly cruel man. 

When she escaped from him she couldn't escape the evil. She couldn't escape the spirits that followed her. She couldn't escape her past or the scars it had left on her. And she couldn't escape her unworthiness. 

Everything crashed around her when a young man, following the voice of the Holy Spirit, offered her hope. She rebelled against everything he stood for and offered her. She spiraled down the dark tunnel until she hit rock bottom and sought to die. She was nearly successful too. Isn't that where God is able to do his best work in us? When we are broken and bleeding and without the strength to fight him anymore? 

This woman became someone great. In her was born a heart who raced after the Lord and a passion that thrived on helping those like she once was. She fought to show them their worth and in Whom it is found; to give them lives to be proud of. 

And she found love in the man who offered her hope. Although she hated him at first. She said and did the most atrocious things to him and hurt him the worst ways possible. He loved her with a Christ-like love. He loved her unconditionally and through the pain and the anger and the hate and confusion. He loved her unendingly and unceasingly and he depended on Gods love and strength when pushed too far. 

He prayed her through to the other side. And he loved her even when there was no return. And he stood faithful to her and to God when she had to find God for herself and by herself in a world without him. And he welcomed her back without question and with only love and peace when she returned to him and gave to him what she had only ever shared with the Lord. A cord of three is not easily broken. 

And the Lord performed a mighty miracle of promise within her and through her. 

Redeeming Love is my favorite book. Because I see myself in Angel/Sarah in every turn she takes. I felt as if someone had taken my story and turned it into a novel set in a different era. It's a love story about the way a broken girl fell in love with her Savior. Then herself. And then her husband.