The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

The story begins with Jack and Laurel dying, leaving behind their three children, the bed and breakfast inn that they have been operating and thousands of letters that Jack had been writing to Laurel.

Within days of the passing of their parents, Matthew, Sammantha and Malcolm, come face to face with a secret that their parents hid from them all these years. In the letters, they found much love revealed between the couple, Jack's love for his children and the love for family friends; More so, the links to the secret. The secret behind the birth of Malcolm, their second child is slowly revealed through the letters to them.

There is a strong theme of forgiveness and self acceptance in this intertwined story between the characters. There is a intricate link between forgiveness and self acceptance. Three characters who needed forgiveness were Malcolm, Uncle Joe and Pastor Doug.

Malcolm needed to forgive Pastor Doug for the mistakes Doug had done so that he could come to terms with himself, accepting who he is. Uncle Joe and Pastor Doug need to forgive themselves for the hurt they have put others through do that they could accept themselves for who they are. However, in both the situation of Uncle joe and Pastor Doug, they needed the forgiveness from others for self acceptance to take place too. It seems that the forgiveness from the people they hurt starts the journy of inner healing.

The forgiveness that is avocated in the novel is the forgiveness that comes from God. The basis that the different character could release forgiveness to others is the understanding that they are all imperfect and that God gave them of their mistakes. With that, the different characters could forive.

In the epilogue, Malcolm spoke to Noah, his son.

"This wasn't easy, Noah. We all hurt for a long time"
"Everyone seems okay now"
"Time is a powerful cure"

I differ from the view of Malcolm: Jesus is the cure. I could relate to some of the emotions and confucion that were being thrown out into the open that was experienced by Malcolm. But it would be safe for me to say that, time would not have been able to do anything. Jesus helped me cross over, to forgive and to forgive myself and there after accept myself for who I am and gave me the hope of what I will be.

Time is an excuse,
for us to look another way.
Time is not a cure,
for the thorn still lingers.

Jesus is the Cure,
in Him we can forgive another.
Jesus binds the broken,
that I may see myself in the mirror.

There is no other way.

The ending seems to suggest that Jack and Laurel decision to delay telling Malcolm about the truth was wrong. The approach in which Malcolm took to reveal the complicated story to Noah was different from Jack and Laurel's. Malcolm who had went through the pain made the choice of revealing to his son early instead of waiting till the end of his days. Malcolm who had went through the torment understood that it's better not to withheld information.