The Drummer Boy – Ted Dekker

©2006 J. Countryman, Nashville

[from previous post: 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.]

In a follow-up Christmas Tale to The Promise, Ted Dekker whisks his readers to the “near future,” a time when people celebrate “the Holiday.” The Holiday happens on the 25^th of December each year to celebrate the joys and wonders of commerce. It is a time of giving and receiving gifts to show how well the City is doing.

Enter Daniel, the son of a Circus drummer. Daniel, because of boyish tom-foolery when he was young, has stiff wrists, but he still hopes to be an expert drummer like his father one day. A secret meeting with the Circus Property Man lands Daniel a small and ancient drum. The drum comes with a story and with some magic, all because the drum must be played for the King—a King that has long been forgotten and turned away by the people of the City.

Inspired and based on the lyrics of the classic Christmas song of the same name, this book speaks of courage in the face of overwhelming odds in order to sing (and play) for the King of kings whose birthday we celebrate on December 25^th.

This charming little book is easy to read and will do what all good Christmas Tales do – remind the reader of how special this season is and bring a quick tear to the eye in the process. I give The Drummer Boy four out of five reading glasses.

 

—Benjamin Potter, November 28, 2011

The Promise – Ted Dekker

 

©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