Redeeming Love Changed My Life

Redeeming Love had been suggested to me a few times over the years, but I never seemed to get around to it. I was too busy reading the latest popular thriller or else a rom com or maybe something set in World War II like The Tattooist of Auschwitz (a must read) or The Lost Girls of Paris. Honestly? I didn’t think I’d like it as Christian fiction doesn’t usually resonate with me despite my spiritual beliefs. I think it’s that I read scripture and my devotional daily and write a lot about faith, so cracking open a fiction book is a sort of escape. 

A few weeks ago, I went to McKAY’s, a sprawling used bookstore in Nashville that an avid reader like myself can get lost in. It’s not a bad stop for music and movie buffs, either. I was wandering through the shelves with several books in hand – and acting like I didn’t have 15+ books at home on my to-be-read shelf – when I thought to say a simple prayer: “God, if there’s a book you want me to read, lead me to it.” 

God answered quick. 

As I wandered along the long aisle of Christian books, two girls were talking loudly and enthusiastically about Redeeming Love. I took it as a sign and picked up a copy for a whole $9. Even though I had just started reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I opened up Redeeming Love that same evening. 

Redeeming Love changed my life. 

The official synopsis: 

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.

Parts of Redeeming Love are hard to read. The idea of an eight year old being sold into prostitution turned my stomach. While there aren’t vivid descriptions, the implication of what Sarah/Angel/Amanda endured is enough to hurt your heart. But her journey over the years from bitter, wounded, and unbelieving to knowing both how to give and receive love and having unwavering faith in God is beautiful. Michael’s faith, too, is so strong you can feel it come off the pages. He talks to God both in purposeful prayer and as he goes about his day. He obeys God’s word and is patient, kind, humble, hardworking. 

Angel – whose real name is Sarah – is broken. Yet there is a certain steadfastness to her. You root for her, want her to see how much better she deserves. She resists Michael for the longest time, but she falls for him all the same. In another scenario, I might have been screaming YOU FOOL! HE LOVES YOU!, but in her case, I wanted her to understand she deserved more than what she had been given, what she expected. I wanted her to know God loved her, sins and all.   

Redeeming Love is based on the story of Gomer and Hosea from the Bible. Hosea was a prophet and Gomer a prostitute. God told Hosea to marry Gomer and so he did. He even went in search of her when she left him and went back to prostitution. It is a story of betrayal, ransom, and renewal, reflecting God’s love for us, even in our sins. Redeeming Love also echoes other biblical stories, one of the most obvious being that of Sarah and Abraham and the delivery of a promise. 

I read Redeeming Love at exactly the right time. I’m learning to not only hear God’s voice, but also follow His instruction, especially when it doesn’t make sense. It didn’t make much sense for Michael Hosea to marry Angel, the beautiful prostitute, but Michael heard God says as much and so he stayed faithful and married her. It didn’t make sense when God told me to move to Nashville earlier this year when I was in Los Angeles and in the middle of an MFA program, but I did it – because God said so. I’m also at a place in my dating life where I’m ready to, for lack of a better phrase, level up. Redeeming Love was one lesson after another, page after page. I cried through the last several pages as I read the conclusion of Michael and Angel’s story and remembered how much God loves us, even in our brokenness. 

I’m now telling all of my friends to read Redeeming Love in hopes that the story will move them the same way it moved me. Many of them have already read it and have similar stories about how the story impacted them. I hope you will read it and let it speak to you, let it inspire you, let it remind you of God’s love for you, even in your brokeness. 

Redeeming Love is now on my “must-read” list and near the top of my all-time favorite books. I’m so glad I listened when I asked God if He had a book He wanted me to read.