Every Good Gift: Sufficient Grace in Time of Need
By Linda Baker Kaahanui

Author Searches for Truth in the Land of Her Fathers

     Every Good Gift is a chance to meet, as the author tells us, those who have “none of the accoutrements of Christianity but have found everything they need in God alone.”

     Linda Baker Kaahanui made a trek to China—a place that is part of her own history, very nearly a nonindigenous homeland of her ancestors who were missionaries during modern China’s most dangerous time. She made the trip to chronicle the stories that had become part of her as they were passed from one generation to another.

     Kaahanui introduces each of her stories with a short reflection—“The Gift of Forgiveness” through to “The Gift of Presence,” ten in all. Each has a story—some very short and some longer, that illustrate the premise of each, although she assures us that the “real gift in (each) story is God himself.” The less religious among us (or those of religions other than Christianity) will appreciated what we learn and see about another culture (China) in another time (the Communist era at its most restrictive).

     For me the most poignant aspect of these stories is how they illustrate the horrors of intolerance, whether we call it persecution, discrimination or worse. There really is no word fatal enough, vile enough to describe the corrosive nature of what these attitudes—allowed to run rampant through a society—can do. Nevertheless, these real-life experiences, recounted by people who lived through them, begin to illustrate the unimaginable awfulness inherent in a lack of acceptance.

     One reason Kaahanui is able achieve so much with this book is that she avoids sentimentality. Her matter-of-fact approach to story telling rings true and allows her to capture a depth of human emotion that would otherwise be impossible.