Recently I felt like my life came to a screeching halt when I heard the news of a life changing diagnosis for a dear friend. Not long ago, I was overcome by drama as mothers of teenagers often are. I fight for bravery in the face of the unknowns of my future. Will things be okay? Where is God in all my wonderings?
Jesus said that I will have trouble in this life and life has proven this to be true. But there is a theme that began in the Old testament and has continued to be woven into the New. It’s one of the many threads that tie the two testaments together and it is this: The Lord will be with you.
Welcome Grace is a place to explore brokenness in the light of grace. It’s also a place to be encouraged that our histories don’t have to determine or dictate our present or future. I am on the hunt for stories that portray that truth–whether they be fiction or non-fiction.
I was given the opportunity to participate in a book review and ‘Like a River From Its Course’ stole my breath away.
About the book:
Travel back in time in Kelli Stuart’s new novel, Like a River from Its Course, as the city of Kiev is bombed in Hitler’s blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union. This sweeping historical saga takes the reader on a captivating journey into the little-known history of Ukraine’s tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.
Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.
Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the “killing ditch.” He survives, but not without devastating consequences.
Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.
Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the Führer’s plans for domination
are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism.
Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River From Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.
REVIEW BY JESSICA VAN ROEKEL:
Like a River From Its Course is a heartbreakingly, beautiful, and well-researched tale of the horror, courage, and determination four people experienced as the Ukraine faced Nazi invasion in WWII. This book drew me in with its complex characters and the battles that raged within each one.
Ms. Stuart did a splendid job creating four distinct voices and I was able to seamlessly follow each character’s stories they intersected and affected each other while being hurtled into different directions. My heart connected to each character in part due to the realism this work of fiction portrayed, but also due to the descriptive and emotive voices possessed by the characters.
Like a River From Its Course is not a light-weight read. It is a treatise on overcoming adversity. The theme—triumph over adversity– is well developed, however, if you are looking for a strong Christian theme of faith and reliance on God, you won’t find it here. You will find a well-crafted tale of the tragedy and bravery within the human condition realistically placed before you with a gentle discovery for God.
In the books I read, I look for ‘take-aways’, the lessons that imprint themselves onto my heart and ‘Like a River From Its Course’ does this well. Frederick reminds me that when I seek the pleasure of man or society I will be left cold and empty. My mother’s heart identified with Ivan as he felt the impotence of a father unable to protect his children. Luda and Maria reminded me of the possibility to make the hard choices to bravely face devastating, life-altering circumstances.
Sometimes life is about living the hard stuff and not letting it cripple your heart to the point that empathy is impossible. Maria, Ivan, and Luda show us how to live courageously in the face of heart-crippling loss and Frederick shows us the consequences of placing our hopes in an ideal that cannot survive.
I would recommend this book due to the well-researched plot line, the intriguing characters and the distinctive voices of the characters. Kelli Stuart has written a novel that encompasses a significant period of time in our collective history, one that is worth reading and passing along to friends.
http://litfusegroup.com/author/kstuart
(I received this book free from Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for an honest review)
Celebrate the release of Like a River from Its Course with Kelli by entering to win a Kindle Fire Prize Pack.
Loss is a part of this life. This I know. I don’t go a day without hearing of a loss for someone somewhere. I often don’t know how to respond–sometimes the pain is too great. Sometimes the fear that it will happen to me will hold me tight in it’s grip and I will freeze.
I also know I will minimize my loss in the face of someone else’s greater loss because I want to respect those who have experienced greater losses than I.
However, I am learning it’s important to experience the pain of my own loss. Grief, however large or small, needs to be felt and experienced. A long, long time ago I lost a little one. I lost the promise of motherhood within a 12 hour period. I lost myself in the process.
Miscarriage is experienced by many, but many don’t talk about it. In a society where a baby is called a fetus and described as dispensable, those of us who have lost a baby through miscarriage don’t know where to turn and how much or if we can talk about the lost baby.
A hole was created in my heart and has now become a beautiful ache in my heart. The ache was born from the what if’s and if only’s and beauty was found within.
As difficult as the journey was up and through, it’s one I don’t regret taking. God used it to mold me and draw me closer to him and for that my heart is full.
I recently wrote a letter to my gone little lovely:
“Hello dearest love,
You were with me for such a short little time. You knew me better than I knew you. You heard my heartbeat before I could hear yours. You heard my voice and I never heard yours, but I want you to know your life became one of the greatest gifts I ever received.
How I grieved your loss. I grieved the first snuggle, the first smile, the first birthday, all the firsts that you and I never got to experience. I grieved barely getting to know you because you left after a short 10 weeks.
But lovely little one, your life had purpose. Your life had gain. It was because of your life that going deeper with God would be my lifelong journey.
Your life became the starting point for mine.
You see, I had known Jesus as my Savior for years. I had clung to the truth that God will never leave me. I knew beyond any shadow of doubt the truth that God loved me. But I was also trying to live my life for myself and giving him only part of me. I was one of those Sunday Christians and not an everyday Christian.
You changed that for me.
Because of your life…..
I was able to let go of the bitterness and resentment that had taken root in my heart.
I came to realize the depth of God’s grace to me.
I learned, again, that beauty comes from brokenness.
Because of your life I laid my plans on the altar of God’s plans.
It was not my plan to say an early good-bye. It was not my plan to always wonder if you had hazel eyes or blue, curly or straight hair, tall or short, or whether you were a boy or a girl. It was not my plan to lose you. It was my plan to keep you and to know you.
But God had a greater plan for your life. A plan to bring life to mine. I live with my wonderings and rather than be overcome by them I am overcome by the life your little life brought to my heart.
Thank-you for what you showed me about life. I will be forever grateful for you.
Love,
Your mama”
Wherever your heart is today, I am praying for you. Whatever loss your facing-whether it’s a miscarriage, a death of a friend, a loss of normal, or a loss of a relationship that you would know how deep God’s love for you is, even in the midst of your darkest and deepest days.
The journey up and through is doable. I hope you will say ‘yes’ to God and hold tight to his hand as he leads you onward, trusting him to bring you to life.
