Wow! Amazing research went into this book. Just reading the introduction had me excited to read more. :-)
It was very interesting to follow the journey of the Seperatists from Holland to America. It has been quite a while since I have read of their journey and it was amazing the number of things I had forgotten about.
The author did a great job of making history come alive. She gave just enough details to help me experience the feelings of the peril and tedium of the journey without boring me or grossing me out. While there was a great deal of history in the book, it was more about the people than the facts.
Mary Elizabeth learned how to overcome fear of the unknown and how to trust in His goodness through trying circumstances. And William learned to know God as his Savior and the only Father who loved him.
Here are some favorite passages:
She didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to pray anymore. "Lord..." Words failed to come.
"When you don't know what to pray, Mary Elizabeth, pray the words Jesus taught us... pray scripture." Mother's words floated over her, and a single tear slipped down her cheek.
As she stood to go check on the others, Mary Elizabeth realized how much she'd changed over the past few weeks. The tragedy of losing Mother had almost broken her her. Or so she thought. But she'd needed to learn how to give it over to God the Father. She needed to know that His strength and peace were always with her. For so long, she'd thought of herself as timid and afraid. Never courageous. But now, somehow, her thinking had changed.
"I can see you are puzzled." The man didn't mock him or make him feel uncomfortable. He reminded William of Paul. "Let me try to explain. To be 'poor in spirit' means to know the depth of our lacking - to know we are broken and unusable as we are. That we are sinners in need of a Savior and can't possibly attain anything on our own. When we come to that place of understanding and are truly 'poor in spirit', then we acknowledge Jesus as our Savior - that it is only through His sacrifice that we can be saved - and then we can be cleansed and transformed. Then - oh what a beautiful thought - then the kingdom of heaven is ours. To live eternally with our heavenly Father."
The author mentioned in the introduction that she did not use the language of the day in the book because of how difficult it can be to read it. (She gave an example in the introduction from one of the books she used for research, and I am very grateful for that choice she made!) However, she did make the language seem a little too modern. Somehow it didn't give the feel of being in that time. And there was an instance I found where she used the phrase "in a jiffy", which didn't start being used until the 1800s (according to what I have learned). I wish she had found a way to give a little more of a feel of the language in the book
This review was originally posted on Among the Reads