Blessed Child

Ted Dekker is known for his intense fiction that focuses on spiritual truths, either in alternate realities (The Circle Trilogy) or realistic thrillers (Thr3e). Blessed Child has a more intimate plot and a smaller cast of characters used to good effect.

Ten-year-old Caleb has never seen the world outside the Ethiopian Orthodox monastery where he was raised, but when rebels attack, he is sent to safety with Caleb, a Peace Corps volunteer and Leah, a Red Cross nurse.  When Caleb heals a blind boy at a church service, he becomes the center of a media firestorm.

While I wouldn’t rank this among Dekker’s best works, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to be challenged in their views about spiritual gifts.  While the book may seem to glamourize displays of power, it also makes a point that healing hearts is just as significant.

This book really made me think about spiritual gifts and the power of God. As a an evangelical Christian, I have a certain amount of skepticism about gifts of healing, speaking in tongues, and other gifts associated with the more charismatic denominations.  While the Bible does tell us to “test spirits,” we also need to realize that God doesn’t always work in the ways we expect, and his power is beyond our imagining.