If you are looking for a captivating and thought-provoking summer read, A Lineage of Grace by New York Times best-selling author, Francine Rivers, is the perfect choice.
Rivers not only writes brilliant, beautiful stories, but also draws her readers into a deeper understanding of God’s Word. I really appreciate that Rivers is never afraid to write authentically about the messiness of life. Yet, even when portraying life’s ugly moments, she deftly re-focuses her readers’ attention onto the redemptive work and grace of God.
A Lineage of Grace is a work of biblical fiction that follows the stories of five women in the lineage of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Rivers takes the Biblical accounts of these women and fleshes out their stories. The book immerses readers in the historical atmosphere of the Bible and brings to life familiar names from the pages of Scripture. A Lineage of Grace presents real, relatable characters who have thoughts and experiences just like us. These women encounter love, tenderness, shame, guilt, fear, victory, and forgiveness. They are imperfect, yet courageous women who have been touched by the grace of God and given the incredible privilege to be counted among those in the line of Jesus, the Savior of the world.
Though Rivers fictionalizes these stories, she never attempts to replace the Scriptural account with her own stories. Instead, she sandwiches each of her novellas in its proper Biblical context. She begins each story by setting the scene, as told in the Scriptures, and she ends each story with relevant Biblical passages and reflection questions.
By re-telling these stories from unconventional points of view, Rivers defamiliarizes her readers with the well-known Scriptural events and allows for the discovery of fresh insights. When I first read this book, I was amazed at how much I was impacted by Bathsheba’s story. Rather than the commonly held conception of Bathsheba as merely “David’s mistake,” Rivers gave depth and complexity to Bathsheba. Bathsheba felt the heavy weight of guilt and shame of the serious sin she committed with David. Yet, through her intense, grief, loss, and ostracization, she experienced God’s unexplainable grace. Eventually, Bathsheba was blessed with a son, Solomon, whom she strove to raise up in the Law of the Lord. God took her worst mistakes and transformed them into His good and beautiful purposes: through the line of Solomon, Jesus Christ would be born.
Rivers’ A Lineage of Grace gets five stars from me! I can assure you that these grace-filled stories will linger with you long after you have read them. This book not only offers readers transformational perspective, but also invites them to become better acquainted with the family of God—a family that you and I have been mercifully grafted into by the blood of Christ.