The Silent Gift, a historical novel written by Michael Landon, Jr. offers a glimpse into the lives of the unlovely and those who feel unloved - but who are loved deeply by God. The story centers around Jack, a little boy growing up during the Great Depression and who is deaf and mute and around Jack's mother Mary who wants to protect Jack from those who want to either hurt Jack or exploit what appears to be a unique gift from God - the ability to prophesy - but ends up in a seemingly unending series of ever more perilous circumstances.
This book is not what I would call a typical religious historical fiction book because it deals with deeper subject matter than the typical historical fiction. It makes the reader consider what it means to be gifted by God and how those gifts might not appear like gifts to the world. Or perhaps the world would have us use our God-given gifts to benefit ourselves or others and not to serve God. Another subject focused on to a lesser degree is that of how God takes the broken and unloved and makes them whole in Him.
About halfway through The Silent Gift I was almost ready to put it down because I thought the author was going down a road I didn't agree with. But I kept reading and I'm glad I did because in the end he brought out the exact point I thought he was contradicting - that God-given gifts are not to be used for gain and that our faith belongs in God and not in what we can do to provide for ourselves.
Overall, this is an excellent book and might just make you take a second look at society's outcasts and realize that everyone is worthy of love.
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