The Love of Christ

I absolutely loved Latter Day Saint author, Kenny Kemp’s novel, The Welcoming Door. The different stories told of Christ really emphasize his life most Christians don’t spend time pondering about. He did a great job fictionalizing the life of Jesus. While he only focused on three parables in Christ’s life he accurately develops Jesus at a young age. By doing this so well he was able to make Christ relatable which in fact is hard because none of us are as Christ is. For me, Kemp really help add a perspective of Christ I had never thought about before, his mortal time teaching on the Earth. He expanded these simple and yet popular parables into actual events in the life of Christ. I think this book was a great way to show people that though Christ is perfect, he is also still so human. He also shows throughout the entirety of the novel how Christ character’s exists even before he became a prophet. Kemp gave this fictional Christ characteristics like, love, charity, teacher, compassion, forgiveness, and many others we see in these stories. I think that this book would be perfect for a younger audience. Youth in the LDS church often find the scriptures boring and more difficult to understand. This warm and touching novel was really easy to read and helped me learn more about this part of Christ, though it was fictional. When this book came to an end I was sad to close the book because I wanted to read more on Christ. This honestly pushed me to look into the bible and look into Christ’s life more. I think the youth could really relate to this type of fictional character and it could also push them towards wanting to learn more. Over all, I really enjoyed the easy read about a fictional life of Christ before he began he ministry. The love and warmth I felt towards Christ and his experiences during this read was something I have been searching for in my life.