It is a Christmas book. And a gentle story about loss. Plus, the illustrations are exquisite.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is about a child whose innocence helps an angry man grieve the death of
his wife and baby.
The miracle tip toes in. The widow McDowell hears that Jonathan is the best wood carver in the valley, and asks if he will make her a nativity set to replace the one she lost. Grouchily he agrees, though he refuses to be hurried. One piece at a time he holds the wood in his hands, and whittles away the parts that hide a sheep, or a cow, or an angel. Thomas McDowell is curious, and begs to be allowed to
watch. At first he is in the way, which Jonathan points out. But thankfully, children persevere and even forgive us grown-ups for our impatience.
No one is wrong in this book. Not Thomas, when he cannot help asking questions and swinging his legs. Not his mother when she mistakenly lifts a cloth embroidered with daisies out of its hiding place to set a bouquet of pine
boughs on it. Not even Jonathan when he barks at Thomas for making so much noise eating a warm sticky bun.
Yet even when there is no one left to blame, we can still feel our hearts broken.
I have not lost an infant, nor a spouse. But I have been
angry for lesser reasons, and God has sent small children to soften me. What astonishes me is that God, the Master Carver, can whittle away our resentments, and fear to uncover the angel within.