Brokenness And Hope
Sewn With Joy by Tricia Goyer and Sherry Gore is an Amish romance. It is book three in the Pinecraft Pie shop series but can be read as a stand-alone. I absolutely loved it. I love every book that I have ever read by Tricia Goyer. She not only writes cracking stories and her books also honour God.
Sewn With Joy is an amazing story with so many godly themes. There is the desperate search for God. “You have nothing if you don’t have God.” So many people do not realise that they need God. They try to fill the hole inside them with many things – alcohol, parties, food – when all they really need is God. “You get to know God better when you cling to Him.” Often it is when you hit rock bottom that you realise that God is all you really need. “When I had nowhere else to turn, I had God.”
The need for God continues in the theme of telling people about God. “How will they hear if we do not go to them?” As Christians we carry the Good News of Jesus. We need to spread this Good News. Lost and hurting people will always need to hear about Jesus.
The novel shows the need to be open and honest with God. He knows all about us anyway. “To think about Him means I know He is thinking about me.” God is always thinking about us. He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, God loves you and longs for you to come home to Him. As Corrie ten Boom said “there is no pit that God’s love is not deeper still.”
Sewn With Joy explains the need to be obedient to God. We need to follow Him and listen to Him not man. God’s ways are always so much greater than ours.
Appearances matter. Is it more important to look good? Or be good? God looks at our hearts. Man seems more concerned with our outward appearance. “It was possible to be beautiful on the outside but filled with darkness and despair within.” This pain and hurt needs to be laid at the feet of Jesus. Only by doing this can we experience freedom.
The Amish and Englisch worlds collide in the novel. Reputations seem to be put above people. “Don’t trust the words of others over the word of God.” Some of the Amish forget that God is in the business of relationship and restoration and not reputation. It is important to show God’s love to all people.
The novel deals with the theme of family. There is the literal family and the wider family of God.
Friendship is an important theme. Alicia has never had a true friend. Only when she meets a young Amish woman will she know what true friendship is. Age is no boundary to friendship. Joy and Elizabeth are sixty years apart in age but are good friends. True friends are those who love you enough to both tell you the truth and pray for you.
I absolutely loved Sewn With Joy. It just spoke to my heart. There are some wonderful one liners – Elizabeth “didn’t call them wrinkles – she called them smile lines.” The presence of God permeated the novel. Tricia Goyer and Sherry Gore present the reader with many God truths. Within the story questions are asked that will force the reader to look at their own journey of faith.
Sewn With Joy is Amish fiction at its finest.
For fans of Amish food, there are recipes dotted throughout.
A totally wonderful novel.
I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review. No monetary compensation was received and all views expressed are my own.
JULIA WILSON