If you’re a girl who can’t seem to accept the single life, struggling to seek God through loneliness, or just a plain fanatic of love stories, then Never The Bride is the book for you. I’m not going to review this as a “first reaction” because this book has been my favorite book for around 3 years. NTB was written by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge. It tells the lonely story of Jessie Stone, a 30 something working a dead-end job and who has been a bridesmaid over 11 times. Jessie is a hopeless romantic, as many of us women tend to be. She has sadly been in love with her best friend Blake for as long as she can remember. Jessie’s Obsessive Compulsion kicks in whenever she plans the traits that her future husband will have, or her perfect wedding. She can’t seem to keep a relationship and when she tries speed dating, she knows that she has hit rock bottom. When Jessie is in her lowest point and she feels like her life can’t get any worse, God meets with her. I’m not talking about just talking to God during church or prayer, but He actually shows up in the flesh (as a rather attractive man that even Jessie finds handsome) and asks Jessie to hand over her sacred purple pen, which she uses to record her dreams and hopes in her journal. Throughout the story, Jessie finds that trusting God is hard and it’s painful, but in the end, He knows us better than we know ourselves. I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I just want to share how much this book has touched my life. As a mini-Jessie myself, I know the pains of feeling like God doesn’t understand my hopes and desires. The book really reminded me how much God just wants me to love Him first, before any other man. He truly is the lover of my soul, just as He is Jessie’s. The book reminded me of a verse in Song of Solomon that shows me how much God knows me and loves me.
“You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way.” -Song of Solomon 4:7
When we truly trust that God knows the desires of our hearts, only then will we find peace in our circumstances. Never The Bride is a love story between Jessie and her Maker and it gives the rest of us ladies a reminder that before we can have our love story, we need to truly love God first.
