Gathered Water by Cara Luecht - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing

About the Book: They want to worship as their hearts demand...

but is it something they can give up everything for? 

Brianna has only ever been what her life demanded. A wife, a hostess, a mother. But when a stand her husband takes ostracizes them from the Lutheran church that controls so much of life in Sweden, Brianna finds herself needing to find a strength beyond her station...a strength that will see her through prejudice and persecution and to a home she never dreamed she would find. 

Based on the true story of the author s family s journey from Sweden to America, this sweeping saga paints the brilliance of new faith, the bravery of a new land...and the beauty of plunging beneath the waters and emerging a new person, capable of what one never thought one could do.

My Thoughts:

“….I prayed that God would make me so bold as to stand in the face of what was not right, and take a step forward rather than back.”  (p. 39)

Brianna and her husband Anders are people God calls to stand and then step forward into a bold faith.  Gathered Waters is their story, and it testifies to a transformational call to share a faith that steps outside the boundaries of religion and into a vibrant life of caring for others no matter the cost.  I think what makes the story even more meaningful is the fact that it is based upon the real life story of the author’s  grandmother’s family and the religious persecution that drove them from Sweden to America.  

This is a gripping story that embodies the true transformational life change that happens when people submit to the will of their Heavenly Father.  This is a story of great sacrifice and heartache as well is sweet victory and a grounded, practical, sacrificial faith.  It’s not unfamiliar entirely, rather it is an intimate look into the day to day choices that had to be made in order to be free to worship God in spirit and in truth.  This is a story about choosing the way of the cross rather than the comfort and familiarity of religion.  There was no guarantee that moving to America would totally free them from religious bondage, but the choices Brianna and Anders made freed them to pursue God’s calling in a way they were never free to do before.

I think Brianna’s thoughts on page 236 capture her life’s journey over the course of the almost two years of  following her faith that are captured in this novel; “And I understood what it meant to be strong and to choose to be strong.”

I firmly believe that God’s children are called each day to choose the way of the cross over the bondage of religion.  What will you choose?

About the Author:

Cara Luecht lives in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin with her husband, David, and their children. In addition to freelance writing and marketing, Cara works as an English Instructor for a local college. Cara graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.