The Covenant

by Marissa Writes - Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Covenant, The (Abram's Daughters)
Beverly Lewis

Here's another Christian Fiction Series book - the first of a four book series by Beverly Lewis. This book holds to Lewis's traditional Amish characters around Lancaster County PA. The Covenant is wonderful introduction to Abram's Daughters - four in all - Sadie, Leah, Hannah and Mary Ruth.

Abram and Ida Ebersol are the parents to these unique girls, who are full of dreams and desires, even if they do live a "plain" life.

This first book goes into great detail as far as Sadie and Leah are concerned.

Sadie, the oldest, is nearing the time of giving her life over to the church, and as a result the beginning of the book shows that she is living a daring life, trying to decide if she wants to commit her life to this lifestyle. She does however follow the house rules of doing her chores and supporting her family. This two-sided life really adds a great deal of depth to Sadie. She quickly finds herself on a path she did not expect, and that is when the story picks up.

Leah, the second girl, is more of the tom-boy of the group. She, mostly by default, has spent her time learning to help her father in the farming chores. This has left her homemaking skills a bit lacking. For awhile it seems that Leah is perfectly fine with this arrangement, but of course, people are more complex than that, and a Lewis character always lives up to these expectations.

Personally, I enjoyed Aunt Lizzie. She is Ida's sister, and although we don't find out many of her stories in this first book, but I am willing to bet she has a larger part in a follow up...

I certainly don't want to give away the ending to this series opener, but it actually had a couple of surprises for me, and I was feeling like the story was extremely predictable about halfway through. By the last page I wanted to know more about this family and how their story continued. Luckily, there are three more books I can read - I haven't found the time yet to finish this series... maybe a summer project?

But I want to leave you with one my favorite points, given by their grandpa near the end of the story: "I care not to be judge of right and wrong in men. I've often lost the way myself and may get lost again."

There is just so much in this line and in between the line. The obvious need to realize we cannot judge as we are broken ourselves. But more importantly to me, that this wisdom was given to a young girl as she faces an uncertain future from her grandfather, who had taken the time to share his wisdom with her specifically. There is so much older generations can give to younger generations, we just have to remember to spend time with each other. And a family is the perfect place to start this relationship.