UNVEILED: Clare Hayns

I can rarely stick a devotional book for more than a few pages - I almost always find them trite, contrived and patronising - but this was none of those things: it was excellent.

It was punchy, powerful & gritty but gently written; well researched yet easy to read, accessible but thought provoking. Clare Hayns brings to life 40 female characters from the Old Testament, helps you understand their context, makes them relevant to our 21st century world and in the process you find yourself drawn into prayer and wanting to read more of the Old Testament. A few of the pages I returned to several times to feed my thoughts and prayer.

Women in the Bible are often seen as marginal figures their lives flattened out by more dominant story lines but Clare brings these wonderful women, recorded through the ages, into the foreground. We meet a wide range: leaders and slaves, mediums and mid-wives, judges, sisters, queens, mothers, peace-makers, daughters, shrewd prostitutes and faithful wives to name a few. Your left thinking how wonderfully relevant the Bible is and how true to real life!

Clare unveils each of them highlighting the choices they made, making them central to the narrative. Some were impacting their family others entire nations and the course of Israelite history. Many suffered tragedy and the author doesn’t gloss over the more disturbing or upsetting stories: rape, slavery, abuse, troubled marriages, ‘dysfunctional families’. The Bible, evidently, doesn’t duck these issues. We’re reminded of the 21st century pain for countless women still battling untold injustice or just ordinary folk battling away in a difficult marriage or troubled circumstance: All in need of Gods redeeming love and action just as those women from centuries ago received it.

The book is also peppered with paintings from Micah Haynes, presumably from her son, which I also LOVED.

Worth getting for Christmas and keeping on your bedside. It seemed to touch my spirit –- I hope it can touch yours.