She drags him and the family off to California. But they don't split up. Then he drags her back to Mississippi. But they don't split up. Finally they come to a place of peaceful resolution and return to California where their Down syndrome daughter is truly better off.
Tension creates drama.
Jewel eventually comes to a moment of truth about herself and her relationship to her husband. Caught up in the drama of God's unfathomable ways, she finds in the end that Jesus never lets her go. Many Christian writers are unable to achieve this kind of realism. If they are attempting realistic fiction, their didactic impulse overrides their creative impulse and they end up with wooden characters moved about like chess pieces. Other Christian writers avoid the problem altogether and write escapism.