BEYOND A CIRCUMSTANCE

Two books in my vast collection of literary wanderings have left me pondering.  




This one Hollywood snatched up and made a movie from.  Of COURSE, they omitted the most important part of the entire story.







My good friend, Len, recommended this one.  Having read 




by the same author, Jeannette Walls, and loved it, I was excited to start this one.

Let me just say--there are books I struggled to read.  NOT that the books are not well written, but I can only take so much human misery and sufferings--before needing to put it down and take a mental rest.  

Unbroken is the widely acclaimed story of WW II hero,   Louis Zamperin, who survived the unthinkable during the war.  A story of heroism and bravery that raises our patriotism and makes us proud of the stuff Americans are made from.  The real story, in my opinion, is his redemption following his brokenness upon returning home.  The horrors he has seen, and the dangers he has lived through, finally take their toll after his return and he breaks.  Broken in spirit and heart, he begins a slow spiral down the sink hole of unresolved grief.  The true story is of God's redemption of a broken man when he finally recognizes his inability to live past the horrors.  When Louis turns to God, God heals him and redeems and restores a broken man.

The Glass Castle tells the story of the struggles and pain of a family marked by mental illness and dysfunction beyond my imagination as a mother.  I could only read a chapter at most at a time.  The frantic scrambling to survive in a world of want and need was difficult to handle.  I found myself wanting to thrash the parents and cheered on the children as they encountered life at its harshest.  Somehow they survived--and for the most part thrived.  Their circumstance was redeemed by their sheer determination to escape the brutal poverty imposed by those who should have loved them the most.  

I would highly recommend all three of these books, but that is not the purpose of this post.  Instead, I was reminded as I read of God's watchful eye and redemption of the worst of the worst.  When I think the story is over---it is not over-until the last word is written.  God's redemption may come in the last chapter, the last paragraph, the last line, or even the last words.  God is a God of redemption--and His redemption will be with perfect timing.  In spite of the circumstance, He will redeem the story.


For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. -
Colossians 1:13-14

6 comments

  1. They're like little pictures or hints of the gospel, the cross, I think. Shame and glory, horror and beauty, all mashed together. (And you're right, when I heard the Unbroken movie completely omitted the last and most important act, I had no desire to see it.)

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    1. Thanks for a great comment , Len!
      Blessings!

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  2. So thankful to love and serve a redeeming Savior! Thanks for bringing Him into the story, yet once again, Lulu ...

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    1. I love how redemption is woven all through my life !
      Blessings !

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  3. Hi Lulu! I have read Jeanette Wall's books. So powerful! And they were hard to read. I am so blessed, I had a loving family. So many do not... God has been good to me.
    Blessings,
    Ceil

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  4. Amen! Most of us have no idea how blessed we are, Ceil!
    Blessings!

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Your comments keep my writing and often cause me to think. A written form of a hug or a pat on the back and an occasional slap into reality---I treasure them all!