A Gospel Book

I don’t often do book reviews here. The fact that I have never done one is evidence of the truth of this statement. And this is not a really a book review, either, but rather, it is a recommendation. If you have small children in your home (4 to 8 is the target age range), you need to have a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible.

My kids (Katherine, who is 4, and Sebastian, who is 2) received a copy of this book as an Easter gift from their Papa Verne and Grandma Linda (The Jesus Storybook Bible was Grandma Linda’s original concept, and was written by Sally Lloyd-Jones; click here for a 7-minute audio interview with the author), and I have been reading it to them each night since.

Sebastian loves the illustrations (beautifully and creatively done by Jago), but Katherine is becoming captivated by the story. Let me share a quote, this from the end of the story of Noah:

The first thing Noah did was to thank God for rescuing them, just as he had promised.

And the first thing God did was make another promise. “I won’t ever destroy the world again.” And like a warrior who puts away his bow and arrow at the end of a great battle, God said, “See, I have hung up my bow in the clouds.”

And there, in the clouds – just where the storm meets the sun – was a beautiful bow made of light.

It was a new beginning in God’s world.

It wasn’t long before everything went wrong again but God wasn’t surprised, he knew this would happen. That’s why, before the beginning of time, he had another plan – a better plan. A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it – a plan to one day send his own Son, the Rescuer.

God’s strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more – but not on his people, or his world. No, God’s war bow was not pointing down at his people.

It was pointing up, into the heart of Heaven.

Many of the Bible story books I have seen for children do an adequate job of telling the stories in the text, but this book is different in that the gospel is present in each and every episode. As the quote above illustrates, the stories are presented, not as stand-alone events in history, but as part of the larger story of God pursuing the redemption of His people.

I haven’t gotten far yet in this book (another reason this is not a review), but I am very impressed by what I have seen so far, and I’m looking forward to the next story I will read each night. And so is Katherine.