Customer Reviews

No Graven Image

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an awesome representation of missionary life. A young, unmarried, woman named Margarat is working as a Bible translator to the Quicha Indians in the mountains of Ecuador. Most of the action takes place in her mind, where she tells you about her previous ideas of missionary work. The end is astonishing and will leave you with a new view on how God works. This book makes you search your soul for what you believe and why. It draws you into the story line, as if you were actually in the mountains of Ecuador with her! I highly recommend it for anyone planning to go into missions or just with an interest in missions.

This book has been on my wishlist since before I had a wishlist. It's written by Elisabeth Elliot (one of my favorite women *ever*), it's about missions, and it's fiction. Unfortunately, it's also out of print. While wandering through a discount bookstore, I found one copy on the shelf, so of course I picked it up, and read it over the course of one day. Just over 250 pages, it was a quick and engrossing read.

In her preface to this edition, the author says, "When I wrote [this book], I felt that the implications of my message would best be conveyed in the garb of fiction. As it turned out, many readers would have preferred a happily-ever-after ending and they have remonstrated with me about the plot, saying 'I just can't believe that God would allow things like this to happen.' Sorry, folks, He does."

That alone intrigued me enough to put my other reading (even Agatha Christie!) aside. Due to our ministry, and the direction God has led in what I've taught over the past three years, I've focused a lot on unexplainable or "unacceptable" circumstances, and I was interested to see how she'd handle it in fiction.

I like Margaret. The setting is completely different from our own, and the attendant difficulties look quite different, but underneath, there is something in her that would probably resonate with most women. Missionary or not, we each have at least watershed encounter in our life that is a turning point in our relationship with the Lord; we come face to face with who we *thought* God was, and with who He now reveals Himself to be.

I liked Margaret's freshness and enthusiasm at the beginning of her spiritual journey, and then, of course, life happens. And as she becomes more realistic, the author didn't shrink from describing her doubts and questions. "Is this really the way it's supposed to work?" "This isn't how missionaries reported their work back home..." "What am I really supposed to be doing?" Margaret, though young, began to see straight through the trite and euphemistic, and slightly deceiving language that are the signs of becoming a politician-missionary, a danger of fixing our gaze on the results of our work, rather than on the God who called us to the work, and Whose responsibility it really is to produce results. It's an important realization, and one I'd not thought seriously about before.

Many who read No Graven Image might be tempted to "remonstrate," as Elisabeth Elliot said, about the lack of a happy ending, but I don't think she could have or should have written it any other way. The spiritual journey Margaret takes is one on which God will probably lead every one of His people at least once in their lifetime. He begins to teach her that if she is to trust Him, she must trust Him as He is, not as she wishes Him to be. We must trust God *Himself*, as He reveals Himself in His Word, in our circumstances...not the God we often remake in our own image. That is no god at all, and He will do whatever He needs to, to shake us to the core, to wake us up, to open our eyes to the fact that our God is not tame, not someone we can "get a handle on," and He is not willing to fit Himself into the boxes we build for Him.

But He is always good. He accepts our questioning - as He does Margaret's - with patience, grace, love, and mercy. A "happily-ever-after" ending? Not quite. But there is the hope of one, one day, because God is God, and He is worthy of our worship, even when we don't understand Him. No Graven Image reminded me that He is true.

The only thing wrong with this book is that it is out of print. In The best thing about it is that it shows how important good Christian fiction is. In her own plucky style, Elisabeth Elliot shows what it means to be a real missionary. One of my favorite parts is when the missionary (Margaret) helps a not-so-helpful but well-meaning American visiting Ecuador realize that giving gospel tracts to South American Indians who can't read at all (let alone read Spanish) is less than helpful. Don't miss reading this book. Buy it and share it with those you love (including your pastor). You won't be sorry!

While this book is written as a novel, it is essentially a story based on Elisabth Elliot's actual experiences as a single missionary in South America. Every missionary or potential missionary should read this book. Elisabeth Elliot describes brilliantly the mix of emotions that any full time Christian worker who is honest with himself battles.

This is the fictional story of Margaret Sparhawk's experiences as a new missionary to the Quichua Indians of Ecuador. This is Elisabeth Elliot's only novel and, given her own years with the Quichua Indians, we can assume that the experiences and people shared are realistic.

Margaret begins very idealistic, with a high and lofty vision of what missionary work will be like, with a desire to be able to make big sacrifices for God, a desire that is more based in pride than in selflessness. She has all of these assumptions that she learned growing up in church. Like if there aren't enough missionaries to do the work available, then it must be because people aren't praying faithfully and aren't willing to come. Or if the work isn't resulting in lots of converts and growth, there isn't enough prayer or faithfulness on the missionaries' parts. Gradually she begins to learn that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. And she learns to worship and follow God as He is, not as she thinks He ought to be (i.e. No Graven Image, the title).

This book is thought-provoking, but also relatively easy reading. I enjoyed the insight into missionary life. The ending is not what could be called a happy one. In the preface, Elisabeth Elliot says that people have said to her "I just can't believe that God would allow things like this to happen." Her response is, "Sorry, folks, He does." And she reminds us through this book that "God works in mysterious ways, and His kingdom is full of apparent paradoxes. Evelyn Underhill said, 'If God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn't be big enough to be worshipped.'"

The reason I give this book a 4-star rating instead of a 5 is that the writing is not quite as polished as it could be. It's good in general, but there are a few awkward moments, especially when Margaret is having doubts about the way she's always been told things are and then changing her way of thinking, the view into her thoughts at times feels a bit stilted. And the ending is a bit abrupt. But, on the whole, the writing is good.

In short, I'd recommend this book to any Christian with an interest in missionary work. Just keep an open mind and remember that just because we "know" things are a certain way, doesn't mean that they are. Many of our assumptions are things that we've just assumed are God's ways, but are actually our own addendums to His Word.

Elisabeth Elliot's extraordinary writing skills come to perfection in this amazingly realistic story. Margaret Sparhawk is a young woman venturing out to Ecuador to live by herself among Indians. As a single preacher of God's Word among hundreds of Natives, her task is a daunting one that only a Great God could call her to.

Margaret is a heck of a narrator who takes in everything and everyone around her with startling precision: the behavior and hearts of the Natives, the town, the greedy white people who live around, the kind wise ones who have gone before her, and even those of her own religion who occasionally miss the mark in their work. Margaret is innocent and wise from the beginning of the book, though her plans and perceptions regarding her work and the people involved are constantly changing like a kaleidoscope throughout the tale. The book, in wonderful honesty and empathy, realistically covers all of a young missionary's hopes, fears and frusterations; it is completely open about human doubts regarding God and His plans in a way that I think people will relate to rather than be discouraged by. Unxpected turns open throughout the book and Elliot blessedly writes in a manner that's accessible to both Calvinists and Arminians. By the end of the book, there are more questions than answers and the reader as well as the heroine is left with peaceful reflections and the conviction that, whatever else occurs, God is in His heaven.

This tremendous book must be read by all sincere christians who are trying to live a life pleasing to Jesus christ. Every one of us have our own fanciful idea of God which sometimes contradicts the Bible. This book will free us from all christian myths and will lead us towards a richer christian life.
Ellisabeth elliot shares her experiance and things she learned in this novel.
If you are a chritian missionary, pastor, or any worker this book must be read by you.

Without hesitation, this is a top five novel on my list. Keen insights on the illusions and fallacies often associated with missions. I would place this on a must read for anyone considering missions. But more than for missionaries, this book touches on the central natural tenant of the human heart---idolatry. Man is so prone to make idols out of anything---even good things.
Elisabeth Elliot is a fantastic writer. This book, though fiction, has imagery and instances that paralleled her own life as a missionary. So many have a very romantic picture of missions. This book focuses the lens upon reality.

I do not know when I have read a novel so quickly. I read it quickly in order to send it off with my daughter who was headed to Africa to work with a missionary team and I wanted them to be able to read this book.

Those of us in ministry think that everything is automatic if we are "faithful" (whatever that is). Mrs. Elliot helps us focus on the God we serve in ministry and not on the idol of ministry itself. This is must reading for every missionary, ministry person or any Christian who has bought the line that says: "If you are faithful God must bless your work".

Pick up and read to the betterment of your soul and your relationship with God.