Looking For God Every Day
Ordinary Snowflakes by Jennifer Rodewald is a delightful Christian festive romance. Set in snow in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it is a wonderful feel-good read that will take up residence in your heart.
There are many themes in Ordinary Snowflakes and all of them revolve around God. God is present every day, everywhere, in all of our lives. “If we can’t see Him in those small everyday things, we won’t be able to understand that He’s right beside us in the moments that cave in our lives.” Too often we cannot see Him, feel abandoned, invisible or even worse “I really felt that God hated me.” God is always there for us. We need to seek Him, focus on Him and trust Him with our lives.
The theme of trust extends from God to others to ourselves. Too often past events can eat away at trust. We find we have built up trust issues that need breaking down.
Trust is linked to fear. The novel shows that we need to face our fears, hand them over to God and then ‘do it afraid.’ Stepping out into our fears and trusting God will increase our faith. Faith is the opposite of fear.
The novel has the theme of guilt. Jennifer Rodewald explores the guilt that Mums feel as we raise our children. Guilt is a ploy of the enemy who whispers we are no good, doing it wrong, a failure. We need to drown out the voice of the enemy by focusing on the voice of God. “Stop listening to the voices that pound you with defeat.”
The main character Kale fears that being ordinary means that God does not notice her. “Too ordinary to be special.” God sees each and every one of us. We are all unique and He loves us all uniquely. The motif of snowflakes is used for us in the novel. Each snowflake appears the same, together they blend in but each snowflake is uniquely made. No two are ever the same.
The novel shows the importance of church for maintaining our walk with God. Church builds us up to face the world outside. Meeting with other believers strengthens our walk and helps in our relationship with God.
Ordinary Snowflakes focuses in on one Mum’s relationship with God and with those around her. Kale was a very likable main character. Her hopes, dreams, fears and daily life were easy to empathise with. I felt I had become intimately acquainted with her well before the end of the book.
Ordinary Snowflakes is a perfectly wonderful read. It will warm your heart. Ordinary Snowflakes is not just for Christmas. There are lessons for the reader to learn and apply all year round.
A delightful read.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.
JULIA WILSON
Ordinary Snowflakes blog tour on Singing Librarian