Genre: Kids BiblePublisher: Zonderkidz; Har/Com Dl edition
Publication Date: October 1, 2009
My son is a little over a year old now. One of the things I most looked forward to about becoming a dad was the chance to share the truth about God and Christ with my children through the scriptures. As we asked around, we kept hearing about The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Everyone (even some friends of ours who didn’t even have kids yet) said it was an amazing Bible. We picked up a copy for ourselves, and I then had the opportunity to get a deluxe edition from the publisher. Based on everything I’d heard, I jumped at the chance.
The first thing that struck me about the Bible was the subtitle, “Every Story Whispers His Name.” All Christians have likely heard at some point that all of the Bible, the Old Testament sacrifices, the prophets, the Psalms, all of it, points to Christ. This is true, but many people have never connected a lot of the dots. As I began working through The Storybook Bible, I was amazed at how clear these connections to Jesus were made through every story. From the Fall, the Flood, the sacrificial system…every story is about Christ in some way. I can understand why some of my friends have used the Bible for themselves even though they don’t have kids. Truths are illuminated in The Storybook Bible in such a clear way that this would make a good devotional even for adults.
But, of course, its purpose is to make the truths of scripture clear to children. Being that my son is just over one year old, he obviously doesn’t understand when we read the stories to him yet (and we don’t turn the pages quite fast enough for him, either). I can already tell, though, what a blessing this book will be for my family. During Christmas this year, my brother-in-law read aloud the Christmas stories from the book to our whole family (they have a 4-year-old who understands the stories and enjoys them). I was deeply moved by the explanations of what Christ was doing by incarnating. The stories are made simple, and the simplicity magnifies their profound qualities. It’s basically like being given the faith of a child again.
The main differences in the deluxe edition versus the original edition are that the cover is different and it comes with 3 CDs of the audio narrative. I didn’t spend a ton of time listening to the audio, but the voiceover works great for kids to listen themselves. I think, however, the power of this book is experiencing it as a family with your children by reading to them. I can’t wait for the day my son can understand the truths the book explains and depicts so well.
This book was provided for review by ZonderKidz.
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