The Stranger is book 4 in a beautiful historical fiction series set mostly amongst the monks and Cistercian abbeys of medieval Wales. It follows The Healing, The Pilgrim, and The Bride. Each story can be read as a standalone novel, but for maximum enjoyment, I recommend reading them in sequence.
We first met Brother Silas in The Healing. Now we focus on him at a pivotal point in his faith journey. His life’s mission has seemingly come to nothing, and he fears he has let God down. Or has God failed him? Silas is ready to turn his back on his faith and go his own way. He doesn’t appreciate the depth of God’s love, or the truth that our heavenly Father chases down his wayward children and woos them back to his side.
The book follows Silas on a journey that is both physical and spiritual. We travel with him willingly because his experiences and emotions are so relatable. Along the way, we meet some old familiar friends and make a few new ones. I love the way Joy re-introduces us to well-loved characters from her previous books. The new characters were wonderful too, especially the charcoal burner and Wolf, his faithful four-legged companion.
Although Silas is clearly meant to be the stranger to whom the title illudes, it is through the kindness of strangers that he re-discovers the love of God.
Each chapter ends with a scripture verse chosen to highlight its message, always leading us back to God’s Word as our source of life and hope.
I found brother Silas incredibly relatable, especially near the end when he makes this honest admission.
‘I gave my heart to God, out of love for Him, many years ago. His love for me had drawn me to Him, the love that sent Jesus to the cross. Once I had experienced that love and understood the depth of it, it was easy to give my heart completely to Him. Following Jesus was not easy, even in those early days, but I loved Him so intensely and devotedly that nothing else mattered.
‘I don’t know when the intensity of that love for God faded. Perhaps it was just dulled over the years. Perhaps it was because I believed the greatest expression of my devotion to God was to build something great for Him. Was my desire to see Grace Dieu prosper, my determination to work hard at all costs to keep it from failing, truly out of love for God? I wonder now, looking back, if pride did not come into it. At least partly. I did genuinely want to do something great for God, to honour Him. But I also wanted to prove myself.’
For me, these words provided a huge “Aha” moment. As someone who has always endeavoured to serve and honour God, they helped me understand how pride can creep in, and how easy it is to fall into the trap of believing God measures our worth by what we do for him instead of by what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
Thank you, Joy, for another soul-nourishing and heart-warming read.
To find out more about Joy Margetts and her books, please visit joymargetts.com