Book Review and Trailer: The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado

When a book carries an inspirational tale, strengthened by a reader's own beliefs and hopes that magic and miracles do exist, the moments you spend in reading the story becomes a better experience. That, in a nutshell, is what I want to say about this particular book by Max Lucado, "The Christmas Candle".

The tale begins in 1664, when a candle maker and his wife are jolted awake by a strange, bright light emitted by an angelic visitor. The visitor touches one candle - making it glow in all its glory - and soon disappears. Undoubtedly shaken by what they just saw, the couple decides to keep the visitation and the candle as a secret... but not for long. With a kind heart and obviously saddened by a young widow's plight, the candle maker's wife decides to give the angel-touched candle to the widow. Unbeknownst to her and her husband at that time, that kind gesture would trigger a beautiful life-changing miracle that would soon occur.

The story continues years later in that same quaint English village. A new, modern-thinking, young reverend visits the town. He couldn't seem to understand why the simple town folks have a steadfast and immovable faith for that candle miracle - hoping that they, too, would experience it and live to tell the tale.

The book is a novella; reading it won't take much of your time. On one hand, I find the tale to be somehow light and confusing. Effective and stronger characterization and more descriptive details of the plot would've been nice to see as part of its tale, to fully bring out the value of this book. On the other, I also find this tale to be a pleasurable read when I thoroughly grasped what message it was trying to convey. The latter parts of the book had somehow pinched my heart and made me wish that I, too, may find that Christmas miracle in my life.

Some of you may be pleased to know that this book was made into a movie. For me, the movie looks promising. Perhaps, some of you had seen it; the movie, produced by Big Book Media, was aired last November. Since I haven't seen the movie yet, I've taken the liberty to search for some trailers. I'm sharing two of them here, together with my book review, so you'll get a glimpse of it.

For this clip below, you'll hear a beautiful song included in the movie.

The second clip below can also be seen at The Christmas Candle Movie website.

Back to my thoughts on the book...

I am perfectly aware that - when we speak in terms of the "real life" of people - everyone's got a story to tell. Everyone has a silent prayer, a wish, a goal. It is so amusing to note that (somehow) most people tend to remember their prayers and hope for miracles in their lives during the month of December. That's where this book comes in. It's timely. It carries a timeless and hopeful message that has been beautifully portrayed in the movie.

That's it for today. I'll see you next post. :-)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”