Guest Author - Diana Pederson

Bonnie Leon. The Heart of Thornton Creek. Revell 2005.

Boston to Australia? Can you imagine making a move like that in the 1800s? Rebecca Williams is faced with just such a prospect when her beloved father suddenly dies. She was raised to be an extremely independent, outspoken woman for time period. However, the outback region of Australia is even less tolerant of these characteristics than Boston was in the 1800s. She only agrees to marry Daniel Thornton when it becomes apparent that this is the best thing for a “proper” woman to do rather than facing life on her own in a day when few women held jobs or were self supporting.

The Thornton family is dominated by an extremely strong man who believes that His way is God’s way. Obviously, this will lead to many conflicts as Rebecca tries to earn the respect of her new father-in-law and family. Drought, fire, limited medical care, and even religious differences are just a few of the challenges she must conquer in order to gain both the respect of her husband and his family.

Our modern day marriage is based on love rather than the characteristics of the husband, and possibly, some agreement between the families. One of Rebecca’s challenges was to create a real marriage out of unfortunate circumstances. I can’t help but observe that marriages from that time period didn’t end in divorce when a couple falls out of love as easily as they fell into love

Recommendation

Learn about the past so you can pick the best from it and let go of the worst. Modern day women would do well to study life in the historical past so they can better appreciate today’s marriage. . There is a lesson for modern day women in books set in that time period. Women had to learn to be submissive to a husband they didn’t even love, as we think of love. In some ways, the love between a husband and wife in that day may more closely resemble the love between Christ and his church.

High school and college women of today would do well to read this novel. It will no doubt challenge them to develop a different relationship with the men in their lives – one based on the scriptural view of marriage rather than our modern day romantic viewpoint of this holy union.