Christian Fiction: Wishing on Dandelions

Novelist Mary E. DeMuth is one of a group of writers who is writing Christian fiction with great depth, tackling real life pain and joy, and doing it with beautiful, descriptive writing. Her latest book, "Wishing on Dandelions," is a poignant sequel to "Watching the Tree Limbs," which introduced us to Mara, a young girl who faced the horror of childhood sexual abuse and found redemptive hope in the love of Christ. "Wishing on Dandelions" takes us on Maranatha’s journey as a teenager as she struggles to understand romantic love and conquer her past.

The book is full of grace, honesty, courage, and beauty. DeMuth’s well–drawn characters draw you into the story, set in a hot, dusty east Texas town and stay with you long after you close the pages of the book.

In her own words, the writer wants, "the reader should take away from my book that redemption of a broken life takes time. We’re all on a journey of healing. Sometimes it’s slow going, but if we can endure through the dark times, God will bring us to new places of growth".

This book deals with difficult subject matter: childhood sexual abuse and its residual affects. The author adds further,"My passion is to write about redemption through the avenue of story. I started the first book, "Watching the Tree Limbs," in a flurry. In my mind I saw the streets of Burl and a girl who didn’t know where she came from. Because my personal story involves different instances of sexual abuse, I wanted to write a story that showed the reader how God could intersect an abuse–victim’s life and make a difference".

She relates with the protagonist in the novel, Maranatha,as she feels that God had transformed her life in such a radical way (like her name change from Mara – bitter – to Maranatha – Come Lord Jesus). She really enjoyed writing this love story as she never thought she had it in her, so being able to create the proper angst and stress, along with the sweetness of new love, really blessed her. Remembering her own journey "…When you’ve been sexually assaulted, you begin to see yourself as some sort of weird target. I felt that I had a mark on me for all the creeps of the world to see. I could definitely identify with Maranatha on that one".

In "Dandelions," Maranatha had to face her pain and walk through it again in a way to continue the path toward healing. It took tremendous courage for her to do this. So on the importance of facing and going through the pain, not around it, the writer commented "Most of us are pain–avoidant, which means many of us choose not to walk through healing because of the tremendous amount of pain associated with it. I would gander that most Christians live half–lived lives because they won’t “go there” with Jesus. For me, seeing my daughters reach age five (the year of my molestation) threw me into a tizzy. I worried they would be harmed like I had been. And I relived the memories, realizing finally how very young I was when it happened. Thankfully, the Lord helped me heal some more through that trying time by sending me good books ( "The Wounded Heart" by Dan Allender) and great friends who prayed me through".

And on her signature style of ending the book with hope she said that,"Hope is essential to Jesus’ Gospel. Even when things are bleak, there is always hope — if not in this life, then in the next. I’m not interested, however, in presenting hope in a superfluous way. I don’t want to tie up every story thread neatly. The truth is, life is tragic and difficult and bewildering, but God intersects that life and brings hope. And I would like to tell all my readers one thing, that is, run to Jesus".