The Gift
Richard Paul Evans

A Conversation With Richard Paul Evans

1. What kind of research, if any, did you do for your story? Did you find that there were actually people who exist with these powers?

I began by researching stories about children who claimed near-death experiences. After my book The Christmas Box was published, I was contacted by many adults who claimed to have NDE’s [near-death experiences]. What intrigued me is how differently children, who aren’t as set in their ways, viewed the NDE. Some of them seemed incapable of living what we consider a normal life.

The concept of spiritual healing was something I was raised with. My grandfather, a devout Christian, had the gift of healing. On three different occasions I saw him give blessings that resulted in miraculous healings, to the point of completely astounding the doctors who were involved. One doctor said, and I quote, “There is a power at work here much greater than any doctor’s.”

2. What drew you to telling this particular story?

Perhaps with the recent losses in my life I was looking for healing myself.

3. Was writing the book in any way healing for you? Do you think people can be healed by reading a story about healing? If so, how?

I think the book made me consider not my own healing but others. Was I doing everything I could to bless the lives of those around me. Yes, people can definitely be healed by books. Again, in reference to The Christmas Box, I received hundreds of comments from people telling how they were healed.

4. Can you discuss what you find so healing about children?

Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness.

5. Do you think that someone can heal him- or herself? Or must healing necessarily involve another person?

I believe, on some level, that all healing and all life comes from a single, universal source. God. But we are the initiators of the process.

6. In the story, you seem to touch lightly on the morality or ethics of healing. In the Christian spirit, aren’t we all God’s children and thus each deserving of divine healing? Was it difficult to decide whom Collin should heal? Why or why not? Did you struggle at all with Collin being able to change another being’s destiny with his gift?

A couple points to consider. From a Christian perspective, this life is a temporary estate, so the most important goal in life is not to prolong life, but to magnify life. That being the case, physical healing isn’t nearly as important as spiritual healing.

Also, I’m not so fatalistic to think that everything bad comes from God. I think I expressed this in Miche’s words. “Sometimes things just are the way they are.”

7. How would you describe love?

I believe that love is the choice we make to raise ourselves and others to the highest planes of existence.

8. Have you ever done any work with Tourette’s patients? What does it mean to you to have the main character suddenly cured?

Daily. My son, like me, suffers from TS. After I was diagnosed with Tourette’s, my wife and I started to attend some TS events. My son and I found them horribly depressing, so we don’t go anymore. In truth, I no longer look at my TS as a disability, so Nathan’s greatest response—that he had lost his identity—was actually how I would feel.

9. What are you working on now?

I can’t tell you. But I think my readers are going to love it.