Life is not always fair.
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It’s not fair that Catherine was born into a family that lives in Ringgold, Georgia while others are born 100 miles away in Atlanta (where there are large department stores, movie theaters, fancy restaurants, and opportunities to become a movie star or doctor). Through a couple brief trips, she got a taste of this “Promised Land”, but she can’t move there until she turns 18.
“A world where girls like me and Martha Ann could dream of being more than country girls content to raise a family and grow a crop of tomatoes in the backyard” (9).
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It’s not fair that God seems to use His power sometimes (like when parting the Red Sea for Moses), but not other times (like for parting the river when Catherine’s mom floated away).
“God Almighty could part an ocean for his crowd but couldn’t even bother to clear one narrow path in Chickamauga Creek for Lena Mae Cline. I sat in my chair getting madder and madder. He could have saved my mama if He had wanted to” (29-30).
“Daddy never lost his faith, not for one minute. He said God didn’t take Mama away. It was an accident, and God doesn’t cause accidents. He just helps us cope with them” (26-27).
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It’s not fair that Catherine is the only girl in her grade without a mom and therefore has to be the “special helper” at the school’s mother-daughter tea, pouring tea out for everyone else.
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It’s not fair that Catherine’s best friend (Lolly) constantly reminds Lolly that she was the result of a drunken night and was unplanned/unwanted (and has therefore always been a nuisance).
“I really don’t know which is worse, having a mama who leaves you thinking that she loved you or having a mama who lets you know almost every day of your life that she wished you’d never been born” (242).
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It’s not fair that every year at the Church’s Easter Egg hunt, Emma Sue’s mom always cheats by guiding Emma Sue to the prized golden egg. It’s also not fair that when they finally decided to implement two golden eggs to avoid this issue (due to the wealthiest member threatening to switch to the Presbyterian Church in the next town), that member’s niece always seemed to win the second golden egg.
“Girls, life’s not fair. You know that by now. But I promise you there is a golden egg waiting for you, somewhere, someday” (21).
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It’s not fair that Catherine has higher standards she needs to follow just because she’s the preacher’s daughter. When Catherine pushed Emma Sue into the lake because she was making fun of Catherine’s little sister (Martha Ann), Catherine got the harsh punishment of not being allowed to go to DQ the rest of the summer (which is the place where she routinely goes every Saturday to reflect on the past week and get ready for the upcoming week).
“I expect you to set an example for the others to follow. You are the preacher’s daughter and with that comes a certain responsibility, like it or not” (52).
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It’s not fair that after Catherine broke up with her boyfriend (Hank) out of wants for different things (since she was looking to move to the city, and he was looking to take over his dad’s dairy farm), he started dating Ruthie Morgan (the spoiled girly girl who always owned all the cashmere sweaters and expensive toys that Catherine wanted).
“I knew he’d fall in love, but why her? Why Ruthie Morgan? She always had everything, everything I didn’t -- pretty clothes, pretty hair, and a mama and daddy who were home every day just waiting for her to waltz through the door. I know life’s not fair, Daddy said it all the time. But for some people, it just seemed to be so much better” (175-176).
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Sometimes we don’t get clear, immediate answers to our prayers. Instead, the Lord acts in mysterious ways.
“My daddy always said that if the good Lord can take the time to care for something as small as a baby sparrow nesting in a tree, then surely He could take the time to listen to a little girl in Ringgold, Georgia. So every night before I went to bed I got down on my knees and begged the Lord to find me a way out of this town. And every morning, I woke up in the same old place” (3).
“My daddy said I was a little girl with a big imagination. Maybe. Or maybe I was a patient girl with a big dream, or a despairing girl waiting for her divine deliverance” (5).
“For every angel that leaves this world there’s another waiting to take his place. And I guess I was the one waiting in line to take my granddaddy's place” (18).
“Truth be told, even though I had grown a bit tired of waiting on the Lord to get around to answering some of my most pressing questions, I found an unusual amount of pleasure in reading His good book. Well, at least the stories. I figured if Noah could survive a flood that covered the entire earth while rocking around in a homemade boat filled with a zooful of animals, and David could beat up a giant with nothing more than an old slingshot he fashioned together with a sturdy stick and a piece of leather, then maybe little old Catherine Grace was grace to find her way out of Ringgold after all” (27-28).
“I had spent my life begging the Lord to hear me out, to let me know He was out there somewhere, actually caring about what happened to Catherine Grace Cline. Turns out, I think He was talking to me all along, I just never bothered to listen to what He had to say” (268).
“It’s a funny thing… how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don’t see what we’re meant to do” (268-269).
“Dreams are a funny thing. Not so long ago, I was consumed with my dream, so consumed that I saw any other possibility as a disappointment. I was convinced that the Lord didn’t giveth much of anything. I was convinced that He just spent all His time taking away, especially from Catherine Grace Cline. // Daddy said that Jesus talked in parables because people have a tendency to hear but not listen. They look but don’t see. I guess I was no different than anybody else. I looked and looked for that dad-gum golden egg, and I finally saw it, just like Daddy said I would. Funny thing is, I didn’t want it anymore” (292-293).
In the end, Catherine moved back and made jam-making her full-time job (which became very successful and was requested by many stores). Hank broke up with Ruthie and became the new preacher. Many people are trying to get him and Catherine to marry one another (so that he will carry on the family line of preachers), but the book ends with a “we’ll see about that”.
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Is it better to live in the middle of nowhere where nothing happens, or in the city where there’s both excitement and danger?
“Ringgold, he always told me, had everything a man needed, and what it didn’t have, a man didn’t need. // Truth be told, I think Daddy was a little bit scared of the world beyond the Catoosa County line. And I guess I can’t blame him. Every night he would get comfortable in his reclining chair, turn on the television, and then let Walter Cronkite convince him that the world was too dangerous for anyone he loved. Boys were getting themselves blown up every day in some country I knew nothing about. Grown women were pulling off their bras and burning them in broad daylight for everyone to see. And a man named Martin Luther was telling the black people they deserved a better life, and everybody around town seemed afraid that they might actually get it. // …All I could see in my daddy’s eyes was fear. I think he thought that here in Ringgold he could keep his babies safe, just like his daddy had done and his daddy’s daddy” (10-11).
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It’s good to have some spice in your life (just not too much spice).
Catherine’s neighbor (Gloria Jean) was best friends with Catherine’s mom. After Catherine’s mom left, Gloria Jean became a mother figure for her and Martha Ann, teaching them about fashion and the mechanics of periods.
She lives life to the fullest, and one fourth of July, she ever put real fireflies in her hair and covered them with netting so that her hair was lit up with lights (until the bugs choked on her hairspray and Gloria paid Catherine and Martha Ann to pick the dead bugs out of her hair).
Gloria Jean had remarried 5 times, wearing a different white dress to each wedding. But the marriages never worked out for one reason or another, and Gloria Jean always had miscarriages and was therefore never able to bear kids of her own.
Catherine’s dad was not very impressed by Gloria’s love life.
“There’s a reason why a bride wears white on her wedding day… husbands and wedding dresses are not meant to be collected. You only need one of each” (38)
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If you have a dream, you probably need to take action for it to happen.
When Catherine was upset about not being able to go to DQ for the rest of summer and being stuck in Ringgold, Gloria Jean lifted her spirits by offering a plan to kickstart preparations for her dream. Because moving to another city when Catherine turns 18 would require money, Gloria said Catherine could pick the strawberries in her farm, turn it into jam, and sell it at the local grocery store. Gloria Jean taught everything Catherine needed to know to make this work out.
“Why don’t you put your energy into making some change instead of sitting around moping all summer long. Dreams don’t just happen, baby, you got to go after ‘em” (56).
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If you love something, you need to let it go.
“Daddy gave me my first set of luggage on my sixteenth birthday…. // Taped to the cosmetic bag was a Hallmark card that Daddy must have picked up at the Dollar General Store. A picture of a baby bird about to leap out of his mama’s nest was on the front of the card along with this corny saying about needing to love someone enough to let him go because only then will the love come back to you. I got the point. Daddy was going to let me leave town on my eighteenth birthday without a fuss so I could get this big-city foolishness out of my system. But I’d fly back. He was counting on it, just like the little bird on the card” (96-97).
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Sometimes dreams aren’t as perfect as they seem when it comes time to live them.
When it’s time for Catherine to move to Atlanta, she finds herself missing her bed (where she had solved countless algebra problems and had cried herself to sleep countless nights after her mom left), and missing having a friend like Lolly around who already knows her whole life’s story.
“I couldn’t help but think of Moses. He was certain the Lord had chosen the wrong man to lead His people out of slavery, and I wondered if I really had what it took to up and leave the only land I had ever known. But then I figured if Moses could question the Lord’s intentions out-right, surely it was natural for me to feel a little shaky about my pending exodus, now that the day had finally come” (128-129).
“I never for a minute would have believed a dream could be this painful” (143).
“I wondered if this was how Mama felt when she got to heaven, happy to be there but sorry she had to go” (145).
“You’ve been so busy looking at that mountain that you’ve never seen what was right here under your nose” (252).
“Sometimes… you spend your life looking for the one thing you had all along” (263).
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Do you work to live or live to work?
Catherine’s boss at her new city retail job (Mr. Wallis) pressures Catherine to not go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. He doesn’t explicitly say that she can’t go home, but he mentions how busy the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas are and how her performance makes her look like a promising candidate for the management-trainee program (which will allow her to get promoted). The fact that it’s a man’s world and thus the only candidate in heels adds to the pressure to prove herself. However, Catherine’s dad and sister are disappointed in her sacrifices (since it seems like she’s prioritizing her new life over them).
“Although Mr. Wallis never talked about his personal life, I was more certain than ever that he had never had a wife or children. All he ever said was that his family was right here at Davidson’s. Seemed kind of like a funny place to call home” (188).
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Everyone’s only human and bound to make mistakes (even preachers and their wives).
Catherine’s mom (Lena) married her dad (Marshall) when her mom was only 16. After settling down and giving birth to Catherine and Martha Ann, she was itching to go after her dream of becoming a singer. Marshall couldn’t leave Ringgold (since he was the preacher and had a farm), and he threatened Lena that if she left, she would never be allowed to come back. Lena felt like she had no choice but to fake her own death (with the story that she hit her head on a rock and a river carried her away), with only Marshall knowing the truth of her disappearance. While Lena performed in bars and waitressed in another town, she never forgot about her two daughters and sent them birthday cards every year (under the pseudonym of being an aunt that they never met). Lena figured that one day, Catherine and Martha Ann would forget about their mom completely and be fine without her.
Marshall missed Lena terribly, and years later, he started dating the Church’s Sunday School teacher, Miss Maragent Raines. The desires for human intimacy pushed him to get Miss Raines pregnant, only then telling her that he would never be able to marry her because his wife was still alive.
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Death can put things into perspective, making us appreciate life and other people more.
When Catherine’s dad died, she found herself talking and bonding more with other people in her town.
“Dying has a funny way of making you see people, the living and the dead, a little differently. Maybe that's just part of the grieving, or maybe the dead stand there and open our eyes a bit wider” (214).
“I’m here not to say goodbye to my daddy, but to celebrate his life” (281).
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As was explained in the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds in Matthew 13, goodness needs to be nurtured if we want it to persist and grow.
“‘You know, sweetie, the mustard seeds that fell among the thorn bushes grew up nice and tall, but then the thorns choked them and their fruit never ripened. The seeds that fell in the good soil grew strong and bore many fruits.’ // ‘Daddy, c’mon,’ I said, a little irritated by this last-ditch effort to biblically guilt me into staying home. // If something was really heavy on my daddy’s heart, then he started talking in parables, just like Jesus Christ Himself except in overalls. What Daddy was really saying was that Atlanta was going to be a difficult place to lead a good, healthy life. There may be too many temptations, too many smooth-talking men. I could only hope. // But here in Ringgold, where the soil is rich and healthy and temptations are few and far between, I could grow a strong, healthy family and be bored out of my mind” (142-143).
“Your daddy always said that the Lord plants a small seed of goodness in each and every one of us. Sometimes that seed grows into a mighty tree, and sometimes it struggles to take hold at all. It’s up to us to help the Lord nurture the good in ourselves and the people around us //… But you know there’s some good in all of us… You just got to be willing to look harder in some than others” (242).
“You all know that my granddaddy loved his garden. He loved to tend to each and every one of his plants almost as much as he loved and tended to all of you, but most of you probably know that, too. But did you know that his garden was his secret hiding spot, where he went to think and rest and praise the good Lord? …// Anyway, what you might not know is that one day a real Cherokee Indian came over from the Sequatchie Valley to give my granddaddy a purple tomato plant. That’s right. A real Cherokee gave him that plant as a gift for praying for his little Indian boy, who was sick with a high fever, back to health. Granddaddy loved that vine because, as Daddy told it, it had come from the goodness that can be done in the world. // But when he planted it, even though the tomatoes were sweet and plentiful, hundreds of weeds sprouted up around the vine, trying to strangle it to death. Every day Granddaddy pulled the weeds that had grown up during the night. Every day he pulled the weeds that were trying to choke the life right out of it. He never turned his back on that vine. // I think we’re kind of like that garden. Some of us here at Cedar Grove are trying to grow strong beautiful tomatoes. And some of us are like the weeds, trying to choke the life out of everybody else. My daddy was a good man. He was a good father. And he was a good preacher. … // But one thing’s for sure, my daddy wasn’t perfect. Miss Raines’s growing belly is testament to that. .. // I think if we turn our backs on our sisters, on Lena Mae and Miss Raines, then we are no better than the weeds choking the life out of those beautiful vines” (282-283).
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When people sin or behave in a way that we don’t want them to, how do we treat them?
Even though Catherine liked Miss Raines, she was unnecessarily rude to her since she felt like she was trying to replace her mom. One day when Miss Raines asked everyone what their favorite Bible verse was, Catherine used this chance to try to put Miss Raines in her place with 1 Corinthians 7:8 (“Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried”)!
When the town found out that Miss Raines was pregnant, some people tried to get her fired (since they didn’t feel like she was setting a good example for their kids by getting pregnant out of wedlock).
After Marshall died, Catherine took pity on Miss Raines (who had just lost the man that she loved, was now forced to raise a baby on her own, and was pressured by the town to not attend Marshall’s funeral since she was a reminder of his sin). So Catherine invited her (and her baby) to take over her dad’s old bedroom so that Catherine and Martha Ann can help raise their new little brother or sister. Catherine also inspired the town to pitch in with crocheting a new blanket, building a new crib, and throwing a baby shower for the new member (turning their unapproving stares into helping hands in an unfortunate situation).
“You need a family, now more than ever” (277).
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Do we spread gossip behind people’s backs?
Sometimes gossip becomes further and further from the truth the more it spreads.
“I hoped Martha Ann was not spreading this crazy idea of hers around town any more than she already had. And I only hoped she remembered what happened when she told Ruthie Morgan that Gloria Jean had gone to some specialist in Dalton to have a cyst removed. The next thing you knew, Gloria Jean’s sister was in Dalton tending to the special needs of a doctor” (187).
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Do we beat ourselves up over our past mistakes, preventing ourselves from moving on?
After Marshall’s funeral, Catherine’s mom tried to stay in Ringgold and make a new life with her daughters, but the more they talked the more she realized how much she missed out on. So moved back to her waitressing job/ singing gigs, promising to keep up her tradition of sending birthday cards.
“The good Lord is full of grace but sometimes a person will just whip himself senseless before taking the forgiveness that He offers up for free” (289).