In all honesty, as a Christian parent of a child with multiple disabilities, I wanted to love and be gripped by this book, but while it started strongly and ended strongly, the middle section caused my attention to wane at times.

The book is divided into four parts: The Voice of God, Voices from the Past, Voices of Today and Speaking into Tomorrow.

I was interested to read Beates’s explanation of the ways scripture speaks to the issue of disability and how it relates to the gospel in Part 1. As a Christian, I am less interested in how secular voices in the past, and even voices of believers throughout church history, have spoken about this issue. This was the type of content covered in the middle two portions of the book. To me, the most critical part, having laid the groundwork in Part 1 was Part 4, looking at what the church must say to the world on this issue and looking at God’s sovereignty in the area of disability.

Had the book ended at Part 3, or not hit home the key points it does in Part 4, I would have been very disappointed, but the final section contained many, many beautiful truths and made me really appreciate Beates’s work on this topic.

I hope many Christians, particularly church leaders, will read this and be convicted and provoked to think more deeply about disability and the gospel, as I was, thanks to this book.