Touching Wonder [Hardcover]

It's easy to complain about the consumerism of Christmas. We Christians get all up-in-arms when holiday decorations hit the stores the day after Halloween, when Saint Nicholas is better known as Santa Claus, and when more money is spent on Black Friday at shopping malls than is spent the rest of the year on missions projects. But perhaps a better way to counter the culture is by engaging more in the Christmas narrative. This isn't so easy to do. Although we find nostalgia singing the same carols every year, sometimes the lyrics come out automatically without us really pondering their meaning. Sometimes when we ramble off the Christmas story it sounds as plastic as the figurines in our nativity sets.

John Blase's new book, Touching Wonder, is an antidote for going through another "Christmas as normal" season. Blase retells the stories surrounding Jesus' birth, starting with Zechariah being struck dumb in the temple when he finds out he is going to be a late-life father and ending twelve chapters latter with Anna and Simeon viewing the Christ child after his parents bring baby Jesus to the temple to be dedicated.

The stories are told from the perspective of the participants, their hopes, fears and feelings expressed with descriptions that will bring you to tears. The Incarnation is truly full of wonder and Blase has artfully crafted these stories to pull the reader into the raw and the reality of Jesus' birth. Each chapter is preceded with a passage of scripture (using Eugene Peterson's, "The Message") and is followed by an application prayer from the heart of the author. The book also has some simple, yet beautiful sketches that fit the stories.

Not only do I plan to read "Touching Wonder" during this Advent with my family, I also plan to send this book to several friends. Recapturing the awe of Christmas is truly a gift worth giving!

A short novella book featuring the human side of the birth of Christ. Each chapter leads with a verse/scene from Luke and then the human story, from the person's perspective, then a note from the author in the form of a letter to God (one wishes that the author had better penmanship). The birth of Christ has attained story-telling, mythic proportions these days and this little book brings it back to a humanized situation. A story of a family where an old man and an old woman suddenly receive the gift of a child and an unwed girl becomes pregnant, her fiance has to give up his dreams and become a father of someone else's child, and not only that but she has to give birth in a stinky stable. John Blase has succeeded in bring this story into the human perspective and turned the participants into real people rather than characters in a play.

After all, Christmas is because of the Christ child, the birth, the life, eventually eternal life. This book is a simple, easily read, way to refresh yourself this and every year of the true meaning of the Christmas holiday season.

It may not be a best-seller, nor one that you'll buy by the dozen to send as Christmas cards, but it is basic, easily appreciated, the story of the nativity as seen through the eyes of those that were there--so to speak. Each chapter takes a portion of the Biblical story, from The Message, and then follows it with a bit of first hand reporting, of a sort, appearing to be coming from the character involved in the selected verses that tell a portion of the birth story. Their common, human-like depiction of the event, as seen through their eyes, depicts the scene with a more earthly awareness than is often found in Christmas versions of the Nativity story.

It is the intent of the author, as I understand his own words, that "Touching Wonder" is to get us all in touch with the wonder of Christmas, the splendor of the event, but at the earthly level that it actually did happen. Birth in a stable. Common shepherds heralded. A mother who felt the birth pains. A husband concerned for his mate. Earthy, yet designed by the Master of Heaven.

Christmas is a great story for all to believe. This book shares it simply.