Love.

In the book Peace Like A River, there are many times that the characters in the book are challenged with issues that many people would all have a difficult time overcoming.

The reader see that the main character Reuben’s brother, Davy makes a decision that caused his entire family to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Now what is most puzzling in this novel is the way the towns people treat the Land family and how the Land family reacts. Jeremiah is the father of Reuben and is a janitor. Davy is a teenage boy and brother to Reuben, and Swede is the youngest daughter of Jeremiah Land and the little sister of Davy and Reuben.

Many unfortunate things happened to this family and through all of it Jeremiah Land; the father, head of the family, and spiritual leader of the family, showed Christ love through their circumstances. At one point in the book there were bullies bothering the Land family who actually abducted Swede and hurt her in ways the book leaves up to the reader decide. Through all of that Jeremiah did not retaliate.

The two bullies, Finch and Basca, went into the Land house one night with intentions to hurt the family. Davy not quite following in his father’s footsteps and killed them out of self defense that he felt was justified by what had happened earlier to Swede. The reader can begin to see the town start turning on the Land family and still Jeremiah does not give place to all of the ridicule.

At one point in the book, Jeremiah Land was fired from his janitorial job in front of many students. Jeremiah’s reaction to being let go was laying his hands on his boss, Mr. Holgren, which resulting in the healing his bosses face from the sickness that was apparent.

 I think that sometimes Christians think that because they are such that people should treat them different or even that they are better than others. Reading the way Jeremiah Land handled that situation gave me inspiration to love my enemies despite how they have wronged me. This should echo to the students at Southeastern University. If all people were all to act loving towards their enemies they would all be better people, more Christ-like. Real Christ love is about loving a person despite what they have done to you or whether they deserve it or not.