Book Review: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

This has to be one of my all time favorite books.  The first time I read it was many years ago before I ever became interested in human trafficking. 

The second time I was able to read it from a different perspective and to see how it parallels modern day slavery.  I loved it then and I love it now. 

One woman in our discussion group said she reads this book once a year.  That's how good this book is!

Michael gives us a powerful picture of the unconditional, unfailing, pursuing love that our heavenly father has for us.  Angel gives us a beautiful picture of the transformative power of His redemptive grace.  

Book Description:  California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep.  

Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.   

Then she meets Michael Hosea, a man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything. Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw.    

But with her unexpected softening comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does…the One who will never let her go. 

A powerful retelling of the story of Gomer and Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.

Redeeming Love is set in 1850, but the story that happens to Angel could easily be placed in modern times and still be true to what happens today.

From the beginning, Angels father was absent in her life.  She longed for him to see her, to be loved by him and was deeply hurt when he paid her no attention. 

Angel was sold as a child into prostitution by a family member, her Uncle Rab.  Although, in this story, it appears her Uncle Rab did not know what he was selling her into. 

Angel was able to escape, but found herself wandering the streets with no place to go. She was cold and hungry and feeling like freedom was only a dream.

When she was offered the best clothing, food and lodging available she accepted because she had no other options.  She would work for the Duchess and turn over 80% of her earnings in exchange for the protection of bodily harm. 

She would later learn that her portion of the earnings would be kept under lock and key and doled out only as the Duchess saw fit.  She would be beaten and threatened when unable to work.

By them time Michael enters her life she has become hardened, bitter, empty and unfeeling.  He offers her a way out, but she doesn't believe one exists.  She refuses his offer over and over.
She feels she is unworthy so she continually rejects him.  She feels there is only one thing she is good at, but it's not what Michael wants from her.

(p50) "What did it matter?  She had nothing left.  She didn't care.  At eighteen, she was tired of living and resigned to the fact that nothing would ever change.  She wondered why she had even been born. For this, she supposed.  And the only way to leave it was to kill herself."

(p65) "What I do is what I am"

But Michael relentlessly pursues her. Even when she breaks his heart and returns to her old life he does not give up on her.  He continues to pursue her with unconditional love.  He is always there waiting for her with open arms, expecting nothing in return. 

"You're a bird who's been in a cage all your life, and suddenly all the walls are gone, and you're in the wide open.  You're so afraid you're looking for any way back into the cage again."

 

We slowly begin to see Michael break down the walls that Angel has built over the years.  Brick by painful brick, his love begins to soften her heart and we begin to see her transformation. 

 

And through this transformation Angel falls in love with Michael, but God is not done with her transformation yet.  She softened and fell in love with Michael, but he became her God.  She finally had the love she had been longing for since she was a little girl, but she still needed to know the love of her Heavenly Father.  

So Angel leaves Michael one more time.  It will be three years for God to complete his good work in her and bring her back to Michael.  During this time we see Angel begin to live with passion and purpose and place her trust in God.  When she and Michael reunite, Angel's heart has been healed and restored by God's Redeeming Love.