Author K. Dawn Byrd answers a few questions about
Amazing Love (Sword of the Spirit), inspired by the biblical account of Hosea and Gomer.
1.AMAZING LOVE retells a classic Bible story in
a new context. How important is it for readers to be familiar with the original
account from Scripture?
I believe it’s important that Christians read and
study the Bible as much as possible. I’m finishing up reading it through in a
year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect. Sometimes, I don’t read as much I
should, but I’m excited to have read it this year.
2.Why did you decide to take this approach–and
why this particular story?
One day a couple of years ago, I was reading the
story of Hosea and Gomer in the bible. My over-active writer’s imagination
wondered what it would be like if Gomer was a modern-day prostitute. Amazing Love was born.
I love romance and I love suspense. Because Gomer’s
sin is so great, she must have suffered some terrible consequences. That’s
where the suspense comes in. In Amazing
Love, she gets herself into such a mess that it looks for a while like
she’ll never get out of it.
3.What were the greatest challenges in creating
this kind of reinterpretation?
I found the plotting challenging. The Bible gives us
very little information about what consequences Gomer suffered because of her
sin. The biblical story is more about God’s restoration and love.
The challenges came in when thinking about what kind
a mess Gomer would have made of her life if she was a modern-day prostitute. I
destroyed her life and then took things a step further. I had to do this in
order to show how God loves us no matter what we’ve done and how He’s willing
to accept us back into His loving arms if we repent.
4.Several Christian authors have recast biblical
accounts in different times and places–were any of them in particular an
inspiration to you?
I absolutely loved Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love, which I read several
years ago. Amazing Love is different
from her story in a lot of ways other than just the fact that the setting is
modern-day. The situations my heroine gets herself into are very different,
which makes the consequences different.
5.What do you hope for readers to
get out of AMAZING LOVE?
I hope that readers take away that
God loves us no matter what we do. The depth of my heroine’s sin was great, but
God’s love was and is greater.