“I think it’s a little surreal,” New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury told The Stream on the red carpet event in Plano, Texas, recently. “A long time ago I was sitting on a quiet sofa writing a book called A Thousand Tomorrows, and now here we are having this celebration that this show is number one on the PureFlix streaming service. It’s beyond what I could have asked or imagined.” Kingsbury’s son, Tyler Russell, wrote the screenplay with his mom. The PureFlix original miniseries is available to stream at PureFlix.com.

The miniseries follows Kingsbury’s book by the same title. Cody Gunner (Colin Ford) and Rose Reid (Ali Daniels) take the lead in the shows. They struggle with having a relationship while being rodeo stars and dealing with illness. “It’s really critical that we have content that will show us these sorts of struggles — division, unforgiveness, anger — but how do we lean into it?” said Kingsbury. “It’s okay if it makes us cry or we can go, ‘Ooh, that’s a little uncomfortable,’ as long as we see the redemption and hope at the other end.”

Kingsbury wants people to walk away from the series with a new perspective on eternity. “You know, because there’s loss that’s dealt with in this story … there’s a reason it’s called A Thousand Tomorrows. But that doesn’t mean it has to be the end of our hope. … [With the] eternal perspective, you have something to look forward to if you have Jesus as your Savior.”

“I’m so thankful for how it turned out,” added Kingsbury. “I couldn’t be happier.”

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Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.