Now years later, she related how she'd located her birth father in Hawaii and how a wonderful, new chapter in her life had opened. Through a difficult personal journey, she and her family had come full circle. As we laughed and cried, rejoiced and remembered the pain along the way, the seed of Aloha Rose, was born. Just as Laney Carrigan in Aloha Rose and the Lokelani quilt come full circle.
Like a lot of us, Laney and hero, Kai Barnes, are on a journey, seeking family and a place to belong. A huaka'i, no matter our journey, requires truth, heart and extraordinary courage. The kind of courage Laney and my college friend displayed in traveling halfway around the world to find a family. The kind of courage required of those who seek God.
For Laney, it is an issue of forgiving those who’ve hurt her in the past. For Kai, it is a matter of forgiving himself. At a crossroads, how each answer this dilemma will determine whether they can be free of the pain of the past and find God’s best for them. There are many people trapped inside wounds. Myself included. Wounds that have scabbed over but never healed. They yearn to be free of the gaping pit inside themselves and to climb out of the hole that scars their life.
At the heart of Aloha Rose are questions we each must answer with God’s help—finding true freedom and real wings to fly to be the person God intended for us to be all along. The chains of our past can only be loosed in Christ. Our guilt, fear, and the past must be nailed to the Cross.
What do you truly believe about grace, the power of the Cross, and its sufficiency to save? At the Cross is where guilt meets His forgiveness. Where confusion meets His peace. Where loneliness meets His companionship. Where the lost find direction. There is a place at the foot of the Cross for the hurt and wounded, like Kai. Like you and like me. A place for restoration of relationships, like for my friend.
Will you—will I—choose to trust the Cross? Maybe the hardest thing to do. Maybe the only way you and I can ever truly come full circle to who we were meant to be.
I hope Aloha Rose will make you laugh. Perhaps make you cry. But most of all, warm your heart with the greatest of loves, God’s love for you.
Learn more at www.lisacarterauthor.com. For behind-the-scenes photos, visit the Aloha Rose board on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/quiltsoflove/aloha-rose-by-lisa-carter/.
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The chains of our past can only be loosed in Christ. Click to Tweet
At the Cross is where guilt meets His forgiveness. Click to Tweet
Huaka'i, no matter our journey, requires truth, heart & extraordinary courage. Click to Tweet
Lisa CarterAloha Rose
When Laney Carrigan sets out to find her birth family, her only clue is the Hawaiian quilt in which she was found wrapped as an infant. Centering her search on the Big Island and battling fears of rejection, Laney begins a painstaking journey toward her true heritage. Kai Barnes, however, is determined to protect the people he’s come to regard as family. He thinks Laney is nothing more than a gold digger and blocks every move she makes toward her Hawaiian family. As their conflict escalates, it puts at risk the one thing that Kai and Laney both want most—a family.
