Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, May 17, 2024
During the first week in April, Shelley and I drove up to the town of Monroe, where I gave a series of chapel talks to students at an Adventist elementary school.
After each day’s talk was done, she and I explored some of the Monroe shops, including Main Street Books. What you see in the photo is the romance-novel section, or at least part of it. I got a huge kick out of how someone had adjusted this artists’ mannequin so that it seemed to be swooning—very fitting for the subject matter!
“Romance” is a genre (category) of novel with many devoted readers. And even the briefest online searches (like one I did a few minutes ago on “plot types for romance novels”) reveal that there are story lines that romance readers expect when they start to read. One writer (half-seriously) puts it this way: “Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. They like each other. There is conflict. The conflict is resolved. Everyone lives happily ever after.”
Anybody who’s read much in the Bible—especially in the smaller prophetic books like Hosea—has discovered that the Bible is a romance novel. But it is heartrending, very un-“lite” reading, because God is repeatedly rejected by His beloved people, who repeatedly commit spiritual adultery.
But even though His emotions are real and raw, His love never fails, and He finally wins back those who are willing to fall in love with Him again.
For a view into God’s heart and His eternal love, click this link: