A riveting novel that celebrates the God who gives second chances. If youve ever looked back on your life, feeling you threw away a golden moment, you will walk away from this passionate story cheering and with a renewed outlook on your own life.Luke Hatcher is the pride of Magnolia Springs, Louisiana. The perfect kid. He attends Churchdoesnt drink, doesnt smoke, doesnt cuss. Hes the star of the high school baseball team, destined for the big leagues, but everything changes with a simple challenge. Lukes Passage follows a young mans spiritual and emotional journey, through the jungles of Viet Nam and full circle back to Magnolia Springs where his dreams once awaited him discovering, to his surprise, the ultimate and life healing transformation of a God he thought he would never believe in again.
A coming of age novel about a teenage boy, Luke Hatcher, who is primed to be a pro-baseball player and who is discovering that his first love is Haley, the girl down the street that he grew up with. When she dies accidentally, the guilt he feels because of his part in her death has him believing that he doesn’t deserve to be happy again. Even though he was raised in church, his faith in God has vanished. Overwhelmed by loss and grief, he leaves home and joins the Army and is sent to Vietnam. Behind enemy lines, God touches him through friendship and the faithfulness of his fellow soldier, Sammy.
Luke grapples with all the things we wonder about: Where is God when bad things happen? Why is forgiveness so hard? Will we ever be whole again? Author Max Davis does a great job of bringing us into this young man’s crisis and leaving room for us to ask our own hard questions about the depth of God’s love and forgiveness. This book can be read by everyone, but especially those who have been to war.
What an emotionally charged book! The authors characters come alive on paper and make putting the book down challenging. From the very beginning Luke, Haley and the others captured me and made me feel like I had known them all my life. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading Max Davis' masterpiece! Highly recommend this book!
I'd have to say 3.5 stars ... it was too predictable and there were too many editing errors to give it 4. A good, easy read; very elementary in delivery, even though the subjects were intense (accidental death, suicide and war).