Book Review: Miriam by Mesu Andrews

I've been hearing Old Testament Bible stories since I was a toddler.  I know well the story of how God used Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Pharaoh.  I also know about Miriam - how she watched over her baby brother's basket in the Nile River, how she led the women in praising God after crossing the Red Sea, and how she joined Aaron in criticizing Moses over his choice of a wife.

Mesu Andrews writes a captivating story of what might Miriam's life might have looked like during the days of the plagues and the Israelites' subsequent flight from Egypt.  I appreciated the research that went into this book and how the author wove other recognizable characters - such as Eleazar and Hur - into the storyline.

While the developing of the details in Miriam's life are fictional, reading this book helped me consider those parts of the lives of Bible characters that are not revealed to us.  God chose to tell us a segment of their stories, but many of the things that happened in their lives - the daily struggles, their hopes and dreams, their understanding of how they fit into God's plan - are not given to us.  Yet we know that they were people just like us, with strengths and weaknesses, times of faith and periods of doubt. 

I believe the overarching lesson of this book is learning to trust God - something I certainly need to be reminded of every day!  I look forward to reading more of Mesu Andrews' books in the future.

Blogging for Books provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.  All of the opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not compensated for this review in any other way.