THE PROMISE: A Christmas Tale from author Ted Dekker delivers a charming and poignant story of gift-giving that is certain to delight anyone exhausted from the gross commercialization of the Christmas holiday season and eagerly desirous to return to the days of childhood faith when the hope and joy of a Christmas morn laden with presents was both simple and real.

THE PROMISE is such a story of that true Christmas spirit.

Everything begins once upon a time in the land of Palestine some two thousand years ago.  There, a special ten-year-old boy named Reuben lives with his mother, Naomi, and her husband, Jude.  Though no reason exists for anyone to not like Reuben, everyone in the tribe, except Naomi, hates him.  They hate him because he is a mute, and an orphan who Naomi rescued from an abandoned village.  She and Jude are childless, and she views Reuben as a blessing from God; while Jude sees a child who mocks him by his mere presence.

When Naomi becomes afflicted with the disease that will eventually take her life, she has a vision of God that she shares with Reuben.  She tells him that God has told her that Reuben will meet a king who will give him a voice.  He will know it is the king by the need for Naomi's shawl, which she gives to Reuben with her last breath.  Reuben, in turn, guards that shawl, faithfully believing in THE PROMISE the only mother he ever knew left him, presenting the shawl, absent any voice to explain his actions, to every man he views as a potential king to come his way -- until finally, he encounters the promised king in a most unexpected way.

At only sixty-two pages, this is an easy story to read; and it is one any soul would be charmed into repeating year after year as part of the family holiday traditions.  It presents a treasured classic parents, and grandparents, can share with their kids; and, in turn, their kids could share with their own children, in an effort to help the young among us better comprehend just what makes Christmas so special.  It is simple (as all the best stories are); it is easy to read; and it is something, if God ever blesses me with children like Reuben, I look eagerly forward to impart into my own holiday traditions one day.