Book Review

I have a good friend who has two boys close in age to Caroline and Lauren. We often exchange recipes and parenting thoughts, and recently she recommended a book to me. This is one of the best children's books I have seen in a long time. I LOVE it, and so I have to recommend it to everyone I know. It is called "The Jesus Storybook Bible" and the subtitle is "Every Story Whispers His Name." And that's exactly what I love about it. It is basically a children's storybook Bible, but it calls special attention to God's plan for all time and how that plan unfolds throughout the Bible.

Here are two examples:

The story about the Ten Commandments ends like this: "...No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't keep God's rules all the time. God knew they couldn't. And He wanted them to know it, too. Only one Person could keep all the rules. And many years later God would send him--to stand in their place and be perfect for them. Because the rules couldn't save them. Only God could save them."

The story about feeding the 5000 ends like this: "...Well, Jesus did many miracles like this. Things people thought couldn't happen, that weren't natural. But it was the most natural thing in all the world. It's what God had been doing from the beginning, of course. Taking nothing and making it everything. Taking the emptiness and filling it up. Taking the darkness and making it light."

One of the things I really want my kids to learn is that God has a plan for all time - it is carried throughout the Bible and throughout their lives as well. This book will be a great tool in communicating that message to my girls. Admittedly, there are some negative reviews of this book. The text is definitely not word for word from the Bible, some of the pictures are exaggerated, and some of the stories take liberties in adding details that are not actually in the Bible, but I think it does a very good job in presenting the overall STORY of the Bible. And as my kids grow up and we share this book together, we will talk about the stories and how they are depicted here vs. a real translation of the Bible. I think it will be a good exercise in critical thinking for all of us. In the meantime, I hope my girls will be able to see God's hand at work throughout the Bible, weaving through all the stories that they've heard in Sunday School, and tying them all together.