This week I read Divine by Karen Kingsbury. I have enjoyed many of Karen’s books, and thought this one would be the same. A nice read with a good story, one I could spread out over several days. Instead, 24 hours after picking it up, the book absorbed me, and I continue to think about its message several days later.

Here’s the description from CBD: Mary Madison was a child of unspeakable horrors, a young woman society wanted to forget. Now a divine power has set Mary free to bring life-changing hope and love to battered and abused women living in the shadow of the nation’s capital. Mary is educated and redeemed, a powerful voice in Washington D.C. – both to the politically elite and to other women like her. But she also has a past that shamed polite society. Her experiences created in her paralyzing fear, faithlessness, addiction, and promiscuity. At the crossroads of her life, only one power set Mary free and gave her a lifetime of love and hope. A power that could only be divine.

Cara again: This book is a modern retelling of the Mary Magdalene story. Maybe because I’ve lived in D.C. and because of some women I have helped over the last year, her story resonated on a deeply personal level. In addition, the way Karen approached the healing, loving yet divine power of God struck me deeply. I want Jesus eyes; if you’ve read the book, you understand.

And the book coincided perfectly with a Bible study I’m participating in right now, Believing God. God is so much bigger than we think He is. He is challenging me to rethink the areas where I have started limiting what He can do. And I love how He used Divine to continue that process.