TENDER WISDOM

Friday, September 16, 2011

MEGAN'S SECRETS
What My Mentally Disabled Daughter Taught Me About Life
By Mike Cope

OVERVIEW: She was a beautiful pint-sized girl whose only spoken sentence was, "I'm Megan!" But the best scholars in the world couldn't teach what she did in her brief life. Megan died at age ten. Her short life exposed some of the insanities of the world and revealed some life-giving secrets.

Lovingly written by Megan's father, this unique inspirational book wraps these secrets in stories that will restore hope to those grieving losses and to those living with life's second choices. The first half of the book is about the power of her life--a frail, fragile, broken life. The second half pushes further into themes of loss, joy, doubt, faith, grief, and hope. Through it all, readers will laugh and cry and be blessed by God's incredible wisdom spoken through the life of a disabled child. (From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: Mike Cope has for many years spoken to large audiences around the country about what really matters. An author of four books, a blogger, a pastor, and an editor of two magazines, Mike currently teaches a class of three hundred university students each semester at Abilene Christian University and works with Heartbeat, a nonprofit company that focuses on culture and religion. Mike and his wife, Diane, live in Abilene, Texas, and have been married thirty-three years. They have two surviving children Matt, a physician, and Chris, a freshman in college.

MY REVIEW: No book, in a long time, has touched me so deeply as Megan's Secrets. I laughed and mostly cried my way from his words of dedication until the final words: "I now await that next kiss. I eagerly await God's final work of new creation. A time to set things right. A time to wipe away all tears. And a time to be reunited with Megan, my daughter and my teacher."

I agree completely with the words of Max Lucado: "The world would look at Megan Cope and her brief little life and see limitations, imperfections, inabilities. Her dad, just like her heavenly Father, saw something else entirely. Joy. Big heart. Love. Wisdom. Raising a disabled daughter, and then saying goodbye after a brief ten years of life, Mike knows the struggles, triumphs, pain, everyday miracles...and the secrets. Secrets God shares with those who care for the least among us. In Megan's Secrets, my friend Mike shares the wisdom he learned from loving Megan."

I recommend this book not just to parents of children with special challenges and parents who have lost children. I recommend it to everybody who needs to hear Mike's words of wisdom on the themes of loss, joy, doubt, faith, grief and hope.

(This book was provided to me by The B&B Media Group Inc. for this review.)