I don't know if most bookstores do this or not, but the one I work in lets you borrow hard-cover books for 2 weeks! The management keeps the dust jacket. I've never done it before, but Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult recently came out. I'm on a budget, and since this a hardcover, it isn't in the budget. Since I'm only part-time "seasonal" (they call me in as a sub), I didn't know if the borrowing policy would extend to me. Happiness -- it does!
So, I've borrowed Change of Heart. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite fiction writers. (Before you go out and buy her stuff on my say so, I don't know that she is a Christian. So she doesn't necessarily write from a Christian perspective. Some of her stuff is rather "edgy," and I'm not sure I would recommend. Other books, I just absolutely love and have read numerous times. More specifically, My Sister's Keeper.)
What I love about her later books is that she completely gets you in the mind of the characters.
And I love the way she strings words together. Sometimes it makes me catch my breath and go back and read it again. It's beautiful.
So, I've just begun Change of Heart. I'm hooked. I want to know, need to know what happens. (But I turn the pages very carefully.)
Gist: June has endured more pain than many can imagine. Her first husband was killed in a car accident but she and her daughter were spared. Her second husband and her daughter were killed by another of the main characters, Shay. She gave birth to her second daughter after they were killed. And her daughter, Claire, needs a heart transplant.
I know it is fiction, but at the same time, I also know that life can sometimes look like that -- one sweeping tragedy after the next.
About 60 pages into it, June muses, "Life has a way of pointing out, with great sweeping signs, that you are looking at the wrong things, doesn't it? It was when I started to admit to myself that I'd rather be dead that I was given a child who had to fight to stay alive." In the same chapter she talks to Claire and Claire points out that the only thing she is allowed to do is read. Claire says, "I bet a saint can play softball."
June: "So can a girl with a heart transplant."
"But Claire wasn't listening; she knew that hope was just smoke and mirrors; she'd learned by watching me."
Of course, I zeroed in on the hope statement. I think hope by the world's standards may be smoke and mirrors. But I don't believe that it is so with Jesus. So, I've been thinking of how I might (as if I might meet her) challenge June's perception.
There was no smoke and mirrors about the cross.
There was no smoke and mirrors about Jesus rising from the dead. A couple things point to that. If the Romans stole the body, why didn't they produce it when Christianity started to catch on. If the disciples stole the body and made it up, why would they have been willing to die for something they knew was a lie. I don't think they would have been.
Maybe more compelling are the things in my life -- the way my change of heart. I came from a home that wasn't Christian, yet God showed Himself to me. I came from a home that was abusive. I'll admit that at times, that has meant that I have struggled to see God as a loving father. I could easily see Him as a distant King. A loving father? No. But God has shown me that a bad copy does not invalidate the original. And God is the original. I came from a home was isolated and lonely and scary on a daily basis. I still struggle with those things some, but God is my safety. He has given me some great friends. He has helped me move out of the shadows and into the light. He has given me strength to stand up for my convictions. He has begun to redeem my brokenness. There is no smoke and mirrors about that. It is hope.
Smoke and mirrors are magic tricks, slights of the hand. Hope is about Jesus stretching His arms out on the cross and then one day stretching His arms out to welcome us into his presence.
What evidence is there in your life to refute June's comment that hope is merely smoke and mirrors?
Comments (3)
That was one of my favorite perks about working at a bookstore! I also love Jodi Picoult, but since I'm not working at a bookstore at the moment, I'll have to wait to read the new book.
I love what you've written about it here. Hope, in my life, is certainly not smoke and mirrors. There have been so many times that I've felt like I was missing out (on children, on having a mother as an adult, on having a loving father, on jobs I didn't get, on having friends, etc.), but God has continually reminded me that He has a plan for me...one that is for my good and His glory. I'm at a point in my life where I'm starting to understand why He has withheld certain things from me at different points in my life. Hope is not in vain. His ways are higher than my ways.
Twinkling for Jesus,
Michelle
ok...I am going to get that book....I love stories like that. Something that grabs me and doesn't let go til the very last period!!
peace, love and hair grease...
I loved what you wrote and I have several of Jodi's books that I've picked up in my favorite stores (thrift stores!), but I haven't read them yet....must get to them soon! Blessings!
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