What a lovely book. I'm not one who reads many love stories. This one was worthy of my attention though; enough so that I have read it twice~January 2006 and July 2011.
This is Christian fiction. It isn't proselytization. It never attempts to sway anyone that Jesus is the Christ, it simply tells his story and those who believe continue to; those who do not yet believe may.
The story begins with Mary who has just become a woman and is now old enough to be betrothed to a willing suitor. Eventually Joseph is decided upon and the story takes off.
Holmes attempts something really big by putting words and feelings to the events leading up to Christ's birth and infancy. The scene she paints draws the reader in. A virgin birth? Even though it was foretold in the Prophets it was not something most people were willing to accept. Her father and her aunt, Elizabeth, however, did accept it. They were the first believers (in her telling). As the story progressed the scales fell from the eyes of her stern but loving mother, Hannah. The final pages bring the story to the point of the small family's flight to Egypt.
Pg 215
For is not every birth a mystery and every child the child of God?
