Customer Reviews

The Promise: A Christmas Tale

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You've heard it said that dynamite comes in rather small packages. Well, consider this just that, because it might be just a few pages, but it explodes in a way that only dynamite could dream of! Last I knew, dynamite can't exactly dream. My wife and I decided that we'd get both of Dekker's Christmas books in one package for the whole family. So, in a way, you get a great story, and if you have kids, then there are pictures throughout the whole thing. The pictures have just as much impact as the words Dekker so thoughtfully composes on the page.

The story is so meaningful. It is the story of young Rueben, who is a mute boy. Before his mother dies, she gives him her shawl, and the promise that a king will one day give him a voice. So despite his mother, Rueben is hated by most people, simply because he is an orphan. And he is made fun of mercilessly by Jude, his guardian, and laughed at by others. He is teased at the fact that he carries around the shawl around as well. After all, what purpose could a shawl possibly have with a mute boy? The ending might seem rather obvious, but just see if it doesn't touch you. I'll let you in on a secret... IT WILL! And it has some of the suspense you expect with a Ted Dekker read.

So Dekker doesn't give you a 400 page thriller with this one... OH WELL! It wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be short, sweet, sometimes a bit sour, and it hits the heart of the spirit of Christmas. It puts beautiful meaning to that blessed night when our Jesus was born! This was meant to touch some hearts in a big way through a small offering from Ted Dekker! He is not only to be commended for that, but thanked with a whole heart, and that's a lot of thanks. Thank you, Ted Dekker! Christmas is made just a little brighter with reads like these.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I imagine this story first being told as a bedtime story for Ted's children...perhaps I am wrong, but please don't shatter my illusions. The Promise is a wonderful book that can be read aloud to younger viewers. Its beautiful illustrations further its appeal to children. Don't be turned off by that or its small size, The Promise is a Dekker tale in microcosm...a modern-day parable meant to encourage, excite, and teach.

This little book (6.6" x 5.1" according to the description) seems like a nice story about a little mute boy named Reuben who lives with shepherds and is blessed with a miracle at the time of Jesus' birth. Part of the story truly is a sweet tale of how the little boy looks for a king his dying "mother" told him would come, but the story is mixed with quite disturbing parts in how the boy's situation is portrayed. *SPOILER* Other than the woman who took the little mute orphan in, everyone treats him with disregard, but when his adoptive mother dies, he is subject to literal child abuse. Obviously this is a fictitious story, but I was shocked and disturbed by the way the adults are portrayed as treating the little boy - hitting him and intending to beat him with a whip - and all without any condemnation in the story for what they did or almost did to the boy. The child has a "justification" of sorts when angels back up his announcement of the King, but because of the abusive side to the story, this is not a book I would find appropriate for children. The little boy seems to be quite forgiving of his abusers, and the book portrays the abuse as almost normal, but that does not make its portrayal in this story any less disturbing. There is actually a picture toward the end of the book of the "father" figure holding the whip when he tells the boy to kneel down for a beating. Whether that kind of behavior truly was typical in that society or not, it is not the kind of story that leaves a heart warm, regardless of the miracle and hope mixed in with that story.

©2005 J. Countryman, Nashville

When I like Ted Dekker's stories, I really like them. When I don't like them, I usually can't finish them. That's okay though. I don't have to be enamored by every author I read. Nor do I have to like everything written by the authors I do like. I don't always like everything that I write. Dekker - at least in my experience - is a master of the suspense novel. His typical story takes you on a web of twists and turns and then drops a bomb on you at the very last minute.

This weekend as we were driving around on our anniversary, the Blushing Bride and I (kids in tow) happened upon a new Christian bookstore having their grand opening (on "Black Friday" no less). We decided to stop in and take a gander. What we found on their special extra Christmas discount table were a couple of books by Dekker--Christmas Tales. And since I try to read a Christmas story or three every Christmas season, we picked them up.

The first of them transports us back to the biblical account of the Nativity. The story focuses on a mute orphan boy named Rueben. Adopted by a loving woman who is the wife of the leader of a traveling band of shepherds, his (new) mother is his only support and protector. When disease strikes and takes her from him, life becomes more difficult for the re-orphaned boy. All he has to cling to is his mother's dying promise that God will one day give Reuben his voice, and the shawl she left as a token of the promise.

In this very short tale, Dekker weaves together a number of the most classic of Christmas narrative elements: shepherds, angels, inns, stables, Bethlehem. (If you read St. Luke's account in chapter 2 of the Gospel bearing his nameyou'll find the background for this tale.) The Savior, his mother Mary and earthly father Joseph, also put in an appearance. Here's a story you'll want to get and cherish, and read with your children Christmas after Christmas. I give it five out of five reading glasses.

--Benjamin Potter, November 28, 2011

An unusual and unique christmas short story. A young boy grows up mistreated and unloved by all except his adopted mother. When she dies he finds it hard to hold out for hope that he will be loved again or even needed.

This was an amazing book. My entire family loved it. We read it at Christmas time and it brought the true meaning of Christmas to the forfront of our Christmas celebration. Very moving!

I finally put the cd player and I was pulled in to the story.It s a new look at an old story that was well worth the listening to.