Is It I?

Home On Huckleberry Hill by Jennifer Beckstrand is the most charming contemporary Amish novel that will make you smile and leave you feeling good.

I always know that when I pick up a Jennifer Beckstrand novel, I will be in for a real treat. There are always wonderful, warm characters that move into my heart. I love her Huckleberry Hill residents of Felty and Annie – octogenarians who have a huge heart for others, a playful sense of humour, and a tendency to match-make. They say some outrageous things that are picked up as gossip and taken as truth. “Gossip is like a bag of feathers” and once it is out there, we cannot gather it in. It is important not to gossip and spread rumours. We must guard against it.

The main focus of the novel is a marriage that is floundering. The reader learns about love. “Love isn’t a feeling… Love is something we do.” We need to work at the love in our marriages to keep them alive. Within the novel, we witness love in action. There are many different types of love but only one word that covers all… we have the love in a marriage, in a family, in a community and we have the love of God.

If we love someone, we want the best for them. We must put aside our selfish nature and live a life of selfless love. If a marriage is stale, we need to go back and remember what it was that made us fall in love with that person.