The Covering by Dana Pratola
Blurb:
What do a woman of faith and a heathen biker have in common? The devil, of course. Tessa is moved to intercede for a man she's never met. When they do meet, she's stunned. Gunnar is gorgeous, charismatic, and driven. He's also hostile, self-destructive, and an unbeliever...and she's drawn to him like no other. The temptation she feels is as dangerous as it is alluring. She wants to stay away, but God has other plans. He reveals the devil's intent to destroy Gunnar, and commissions Tessa to keep him covered in prayer. Can she rely on God to keep her from falling...in love, and into temptation? Or will the devil claim them both?
Excerpt:
Tessa kept her eyes closed. Physically, she stood at the bathroom sink, her hands curled around the sides of the basin. In her spirit, she occupied that place where utterance slipped through the thin veil separating this world from the other. Where speech fell on holy and unholy ears alike. Where words were transformed into power. She was in prayer.
Head bowed, Tessa prayed first for her brother, Dominic, then her father and mother. After several minutes she paused, but the urgency intensified.
Her skin care routine abandoned, she went into her room and fell on her face at the side of her bed and with great distress, prayed in the spirit as she had nearly every day for the past two months. As though a life depended on it. She didn’t yet know whose, only that it was a man and that whatever his need, time was running short.
When at last she felt the burden easing she took her Bible and notebook and sat cross-legged on the bed. She perused familiar passages and listed any verses that came to mind. There was nothing mystical in the process itself, but it helped her focus, hopefully revealing what God might want to show her.
“Can’t You tell me who I’m praying for, Lord?” she asked. “Is it someone I know?”
Some moments later Tessa felt directed to turn to a specific though unfamiliar verse in the twenty-seventh chapter of Job. She ran a finger down the fine paper of the page, stopping at verse nine. “Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?” she read aloud. From there she turned to a verse she’d read the day prior in Psalm thirty-four. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.”
She knew before asking, “He won’t cry out for himself, will he?”
So it fell to her to be his voice. But try as she might, she couldn’t think of what to say.
It didn’t take long to see the problem. She was trying to use her reasoning to grasp the situation and as a result grew more confused. Confusion was not of God.
She commanded the devil to stop messing with her thoughts, then began to pray in earnest for blessings, health, and protection on the man’s behalf.
Strength to withstand.
The words came unexpectedly, an urgent impression on her mind. At last she had a bearing.
Review: 4½ stars
A burden for prayer for someone is something most Christian's experience at one time or another. Like a hand on your shoulder, this person fills your mind so completely, there is nothing you can do until the burden is lifted, except pray. It's normally for someone we know.
Tessa doesn't even know the name of the man she has to pray for. Yet she obeys the instruction anyway.
The Covering by Dana Pratola holds your attention from start to finish. With something for everyone, and characters that at first glance seem poles apart, and enough sexual tension to make the room crackle, this is a Christian novel that pushes the boundaries. Well worth reading.
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