Review: a surprisingly sweet treasure that deftly weaves fiction and Scripture
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 27, 2013
The Swaddling Clothes is a surprisingly sweet treasure that deftly weaves fiction and Scripture to create a compelling tale of love, hope, and promise. This story follows the tumultuous years from King David to the birth of Jesus Christ. We get a firsthand look at the heartbreak and despair that Israel finds itself in throughout this time. It’s not a history fill of ease and peace, but it is a time full of hope and humility. God uses this time to bring Israel back to Him. He chastises His people because He loves them, and He wants their hearts to turn back to Him in sincerity and love.The idea that something as insignificant as swaddling clothes can be passed down from King Solomon to Jesus Christ is mind-boggling and yet something that I could see God using as a way to bind His people to Him in hope and promise. While this story is a work of fiction, its inception and execution is brilliant. Watching as this cloth is handed down through the generations of kings almost lost and its meaning all but forgotten, is both heartbreaking and beautiful. The research and detail put into this story is amazing and not without great passion and heart from the author.I love the up close and personal feel that we receive from reading this amazing story. You feel like you are invading very private moments in the lives of significant people. This new feel of intimacy makes these stories come alive for me. I get so much more from a story if I can read it on a personal level. After all, we were created to be intimate beings in constant communication with the Creator of the Universe. That is a part of our nature that we can’t erase or escape from no matter what we do.Amber Schamel knows how to reach down deep and touch your heart. With what seems like little effort, she is able to make you feel like you are sitting next to these amazing people of God and discover that there is a way that we can relate to them on some level. They were real people who feared, hoped, loved, and dreamed just like we all do. We are all vessels that God wants to use for His purpose, but the choice is ours to allow Him to use us. I pray that you will allow Him to use you for a greater purpose than you can ever imagine.  If God can use Rahab, Ruth, and Mary to prove that His love can reach this far down from the Heavens, then why can’t he use us?