“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.” 3 John 4
I recently had a friend recommend The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, by Sally Lloyd Jones, so I visited Amazon.com and purchased a copy. I am very impressed with this children’s Bible storybook, and wanted to recommend it to our parents with toddlers and preschoolers.
We’ve owned a couple storybook Bibles in the past. Reading the stories to children give parents a terrific way to begin instilling in their children an understanding of the story of God and His love for people. A storybook Bible is also a wonderful way for adults to learn (or relearn) the great stories. The problem with many of the storybook Bibles I’ve used is that they treat the stories as stand alone events with the key people as heroes of the story.
While the Bible is full of stories of men and women of great faith, there is only one hero, Jesus. The entire Bible is about Him and about God’s great story of redemption. Every person in the Bible, and every miraculous story is a small part of a much larger story. This is the very reason I am beginning to love this Bible.
“There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling the one Big Story. The Story of how God loves His children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell His Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers His name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle — the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.” (p. 17)
We began reading this Bible to Josiah a couple weeks ago, so we are just beginning. Ideally, the stories are geared for children who are a little older (the cover recommends the Bible for children ages 4-8), but he has sat quietly and listened. The stories are a little bit longer than most storybook Bibles, but they are enjoyable and filled with truth. Illustrations by Jago are colorful, and contemporary, and they are careful not to make everyone in the book look like white Americans.
Understanding that I have a long way to go before I get all the way through The Jesus Storybook Bible, so far I have been very impressed, and I am looking forward to sharing all these stories with Josiah and my family. You might check it out as well.