This past weekend my husband and I went to go see the movie Redeeming Love. This is the stuff of dreams! With that excitement also came a great deal of hesitation. Questions like these ran through my head: Will the movie do the story justice? Watching the trailer for the third time convinced me that the story would be powerful, even if the original message became muddied. Trigger Warning: Redeeming Love is a story that involves heavy sexual and physical abuse. If these topics are triggering to you, please be cautious and guard your heart before diving in too deeply.
Before heading into the details of the story, I want to take a moment to establish what the film is NOT:. It is not free of sex scenes although the only sex scenes it contains are between a consenting husband and wife.
The basic premise of Redeeming Love is based on the biblical story of Hosea. Many years ago God instructed Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. Hosea obeys and brings her home. But her old way of life calls her back, and she leaves him. God instructed Hosea to marry a prostitute in order to parallel his relationship with Israel.
While God loves Israel and chases after her relentlessly, Israel is unfaithful and falls back into old patterns⦠even after being offered safety and deliverance. Franchine Rivers mirrors the biblical story of Hosea within the historic period of the s California Gold Rush.
Chronologically, the story starts off in New England with a young girl named Sarah played by Abigail Cowen. Sarah was born illegitimately to her mother, Mae played by Nina Dobrev and her biological father wants nothing to do with either of them.
