Secrets And Second Chances
The Things We Knew by Catherine West is a contemporary Christian novel with a twist and I absolutely loved it. It’s about a family, a family with its secrets, its vices and its difficulties. A family who has split apart but when a crisis looms, comes together again, determined to seek out and face the truth.
The novel deals with many different themes, a major one is that of fathers. There is only one father who will not let us down and He is God. Within the novel there are several fathers and none of them are perfect. Nick on his childhood, “eventually he (Nick) got tired of waiting, tired of hoping.” Nick’s father was never there for him, and as an adult, Nick’s father has very little faith in Nick, “when you screw up…” Nick is still waiting for his father’s approval. Sometimes we approach God in this way, trying to work our way into His good books but God loves us just as we are. We are His and we already have His approval, without ever having to work at it.