It took me several months to read through this book, partly because I took a short recess about half-way through. While I was visiting my grandparents in Mississippi, I was given Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series.
Now, this was extra special to me for several reasons. I had recently watched the film adaptation of Love's Long Journey (which is the third novel in the series). I LOVED the movie and was very interested in reading the books.
My Grandpa Lester has a tradition of watching movies with his grandchildren in the evenings. One night while picking out a movie to watch, I noticed that he had two of the movies, Love Comes Softly and Love's Enduring Promise. I was so excited! After I calmed down a bit, Grandpa told me that he owned all the books! My Grandma Kate quickly went out to the garage and dug out the books. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures, but these books are hardback! This is the real deal! Not only are they hardback books, but there are actually 2 novels in each book. Yes, that's right, my friends. There's one novel in the front, then when you are through reading that one, you flip the book over and the next novel starts from the back. It's awesome. (Ok, I realize that this isn't that great of a thing. I'm sure you have probably seen millions of books like this, but it really excited me!)
I quickly started reading the first novel and soon realized just what a special treasure I was being bequeathed. You see, when Grandpa first got this series, he would read them to Grandma every night. How sweet and romantic is that!?! As he read through the novels, he discovered that there was some unsound doctrine being promoted. Being the God-fearing man that he is, Grandpa went through the novels and made notes at each of these spots. The notes were specifically addressed to his grandchildren. He had hoped that his grandchildren would be interested in reading these novels that he and Grandma loved. He didn't want his grandchildren to fall prey to the unsound doctrines. I was thrilled to read what Grandpa had to say about the truth of God's Word. As I read, I could here his voice and my mind flashed back to the years of hearing him preach. The flood of memories was bittersweet. I enjoyed reading his thoughts, but I was overcome with some sadness about the fact that I don't get to hear his preaching as much as I would like.
So, Strem and anyone else who hasn't yet enjoyed this series, I highly recommend it!
[Disclaimer: Those who know that I am up to my ears in schoolwork may be wondering why in the world I am spending time making a blog post. The answer, my friends: I am taking a short break from writing a paper to make this post. My brain needed a break from art history. Now, back to the paper...]
