Those who are pro-choice (better named parent’s choice as the child has no choice at all) would most likely not read this novel. Planned Parenthood supporters would ridicule it (the last act of vestige of someone without a defensible position). And those who have so lost their way that they herald abortion as a “woman’s reproductive right” would simply dismiss it, claiming it is for the unintelligent.

I am none of the above. I am a Christian and though the subject matter of this book, abortion, is quite hard to read sometimes, the focus is not about the abortion debate. It is about the infinite power of a loving God to heal, reconcile and forgive.

A young love that falls prey to a weak moment results in a decade of guilt, misery, sorrow and pain. The story of Emma Landon and Brad Cutler is one of lives changed by an irrevocable decision.

Can Jesus, a loving God, bring healing after an abortion? Can we fall so deeply into sin that Jesus cannot reach us to forgive and heal? If we cannot bear to remember our pain, face it and confess it, can we live our lives as if it did not happen?

Many other reviews are posted with the storyline of this novel so I won’t include it in this review. It is better that I should discuss the importance of this novel for how it provides a true picture of how lives are changed.

Abortion is not something discussed at family gatherings or in other polite conversation. Often men and women live with the hurt, pain, shame and guilt without an outlet to release them, even to God. But God is ever-present, waiting, watching and wanting to forgive. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” II Chronicles 7:14.

This story tells of the “mental conversations,” the “walking shame” and the “lifetime of self-judgment” that those who have shut down the life of their child at the altar of their own plans for the future truly feel. I have no doubt that even those who support abortion have these feelings but deny them. Perhaps it is these feelings that drive their anger.

This is a book whose time has come. Few authors approach this topic – she might not have written it had God not prompted her, which is a miracle of God’s providence alone.

I recommend this book to men and women who would care to know the truth about the inevitable consequences of abortion and for those who have had an abortion as well, because it gives voice to their own thoughts and allows them to identify with the characters and prompts them to seek healing and forgiveness from the living, loving most high God.

Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury. Zondervan paperback $14.99; 336 pp., ISBN-13: 978-0310266228

http://vesselproject.wordpress.com/

http://www.christianbook.com/shades-of-blue-karen-kingsbury/9780310266228/pd/266228?event=AAI