Bible Stories

I can’t remember when my dad started reading to me from my favorite Bible story book The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor. It seems like it was always a part of my life. Nor can I remember how many times we read the book from cover to cover. Enough that it is now taped together and falling apart at the seams. Enough that I nearly had it memorized word by word. Enough that I can spot its beautiful illustrations a mile away.

Now Emry and I read one of those stories every morning. Emry gazes at the picture, usually smiling and chatting while I read the short story to her. And I remember what I thought of those stories when I was three or four years old. For instance:

Why did Samson break off that door and carry it up the mountain?

Lot got his name because he was greedy and wanted “a lot”.

Wouldn’t it be fun to be a king like Josiah or Joash when I was just a kid?

And what’s it like to ride in a basket down a wall like the apostle Paul?

I’m not even sure this book is in print any longer. If it is, they have no doubt “modernized” the art from its classical pictures to more comical illustrations. They’ve probably left out lots of the stories, too. For there are some adults (the writers of Sunday schools curriculums shamefully included) who feel that children should not be reading stories like Joshua and the walls of Jericho or David and Goliath because they are violent. They teach children that killing is okay and who knows but these kids might go out and try to kill someone with a slingshot. If a child could even loose a stone more than one foot from a slingshot I would be impressed. And I never go the idea that it was okay to kill anyone (except in war) from reading Bible stories, even as an impressionable toddler. But if you are one of these adults, don’t read The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes.

Yes, the stories in this book are very short versions of the long chapters of Scripture, but they are short versions that don’t hide the truth. Just yesterday we read how King Saul wanted to kill David, which was a bad thing. And when David had the opportunity to kill King Saul, he refused to do so and told his friend not to do it either. David did this because he obeyed God. So, yes, my three month old learned about hatred, and murder, and doing bad things right along with forgiveness, obedience and doing what is right. Because that is what the Bible teaches and that is what life is about.

One day, perhaps, Emry will be able to tell me all the stories in her book. She’ll be able to answer the short questions before I even ask them. I just hope, most of all, that these stories will lay the groundwork for her understanding of the truth of God’s Word. That Samson carries doors around because he was somewhere he shouldn’t have been and yet God’s promises are always yea and amen. That Lot was very greedy and he faced the consequences of that greed. That God saved the apostle Paul from many dangers so the Word of God could go forth in Asia. And that God’s Word is True, Living and everything we need to see us through life.