reading

A public holiday has seen me relaxing on the couch, not doing the marking I brought home nor cleaning the bathroom. Ha! I have been just finished reading Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. A number one bestseller, I found it hard to get into. The last hundred pages (of 694) were riveting, but the time it took me to get there was quite daunting.

One difficulty for me was that I was not sympathetic to the religious theme underlying the novel. Perhaps you could call it an anti-religious theme, actually. The three sacred books that are the focus of deception, intrigue, and secrets, are writings entrusted to guardians of different faith backgrounds. The books contain the key to the holy grail, which is actually more of a concept than a chalice: that the Truth transcends religions, that "the real Grail lies in the love handed down from generation to generation, the words spoken by father to son, mother to daughter. The truth lies all about us. In the stones, in the rocks, in the changing pattern of the mountain seasons." This seems to me a sad dilution of the truth a God who loves and woos us. And a God who creates a beautiful world, including rocks, seasons, and mountains that praise him. Our love handed down is a reflection of his gracious love that seeks to be known. May I know that love and make it known!