With her latest inspirational romance, The Masterpiece, Francine Rivers shows how God can work in even the most broken people…
Francine Rivers was already a successful romance novelist when she rewrote one of her novels into her first Christian novel, the blockbuster Redeeming Love (Multnomah)—which went on to sell more than a million copies, and cement Francine as a fixture in Christian fiction. In the more than 25 years since then, she has been inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame, and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Christian Fiction Writers.
Francine now introduces The Masterpiece (Tyndale House), a redemptive love story with the message that mercy can shape even the most broken among us into an imperfect, yet stunning, masterpiece. In this interview, she reveals the question that inspired The Masterpiece, the challenge of creating a protagonist unlike any she’s ever written, and the common thread woven through all her work…
(photo: ©Elaina Burdo)
You say each of your novels is prompted by a faith-related question. What question inspired The Masterpiece?
The question that came up for me was whether two people from severely dysfunctional backgrounds could have a healthy relationship. Grace and Roman both come from abusive childhood experiences and developed different coping mechanisms to survive. The past often intrudes and sometimes blocks people from moving forward, but we are all ultimately responsible for the choices we make.
Each of us must decide who Jesus is. That choice decides where we spend eternity. It also makes a difference in our life in the here and now.
When abuse occurs, a child’s view of God is twisted. That raises other questions. What might need to happen to open the door to the true God and faith in Him? What if someone grows up knowing nothing of God other than as a curse?
I had questions enough for several books, and wallowed around in the mire through several drafts. Hence, so did my characters. Grace and Roman are each on different journeys. What brings them together and what keeps them apart?
I was well into the project before I knew which Scripture God was showing me—Ephesians 2:10: For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. This is the heart of the book.
Click to find the research she did for the novel–and what surprised her!