I have to be in the right frame of mind to read Picoult because she throws curves that disturb me. This one kept my interest due to its subject matter of "hearing God".
Mariah, the mom, is swirling in an emotional battle due to her husband's infidelity when her 7 year old daughter begins quoting Bible verses and explaining to her mom what "God" said to her. Faith had rarely been in synagogue (her Jewish heritage), let alone in a Christian church; so this is puzzling to her mom and grandmom. As the story unfolds, other strange phenomenon occurs: healings by Faith, bleeding hands, Hebrew words spoken. When the media become aware of this, the circus begins....destination: Mariah's country home where hundreds of news agencies gather to follow the story, as well as hundreds of sick and infirm settle, to beg for healing.
This was a fast moving story that captures all of the craziness of our world: the naysayers, the believers, the cynics and the merely curious. It begs for the answers to "Who is God in our world?" and "How does He work?". I loved that the clergy, priests and rabbis were all portrayed on many different parts of the spectrum, as far as their beliefs about how God could possibly work in a little girl. Of course, in true Picoult fashion, she throws her curve at the end, but it was a good read despite that....and caused me to affirm my position that God is bigger than all of our ideas and explanations, and He can do amazing things in any way that He chooses.
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