Sweet Sanctuary by Sheila Walsh & Cindy Martinusen Coloma

Synopsis :

In tiny Cottage Cover, on the coast of Maine, Wren Evans is raising her gifted son, Charlie. A single mom, she’s fought hard to give Charlie a stable, secure home life. What Wren doesn’t know is that Charlie has been praying for her. And the answer to her son’s prayers will change both of their lives.

Wren’s grandmother, Ruth arrives unannounced, with an outlandish request. Ruth wants her family gathered together one last time, at the summer house where, years before, an accident shattered Wren’s peaceful childhood. In the tumult, Wren finds a friend in handsome, kind-hearted local, Paul Callahan.

When the family gathers in Cottage Cover, old wounds will be healed, now love will blossom, and the innocent prayers of a child will be answered in a most unexpected way.

The story started with Ruth’s arrival in Wren’s house in the first chapter. From there we learned more about Wren and her relationship with her family, focusing primarily on her relationship or lack of it with her sister Barb and brother, Jack. Their dad has died and their mum has remarried and on a trip in Europe.

Wren grew up being blame for something that happened to her brother Jack when she was just eight years old.

You might say, ‘How could anyone blame an 8 year old child? What was asked of her was too heavy a responsibility.’ Yes, it could and it was really unfair but it happens and this story shows how something like that can attached itself to the child (like a curse) and how the child can grow up under the shadow of such blame and never be set free. Wren never got over incident and this blame has affected the way she lives her life and even her relationship with her family and her ex-husband.

From the story, we know that Wren is bitter from how her family treated her. She knows, as an adult now, that she wasn’t to blame. She drew strength from Psalm 27 and was greatly comforted by it and from it, she learns to forgive and with forgiveness, God works miraculous wonders over that weekend while Ruth celebrates her ‘90th’ birthday.

This is one lovely book which I enjoyed tremendously. It wasn’t overly spiritual but I’m grateful at how the authors made Psalm 27 real in Wren’s story. Psalm 27 is my favourite psalm and to see it coming alive in this book is joy and blessing.

Sweet Santuary is published by Thomas Nelson.