Samuel's New Bible

Our kids have all had a Precious Moments Bible of some sort since they were born. They have all had a small hands edition NKJV. Nathaniel had a beautiful CEV. The pictures in it were more vibrant and colorful than most Precious Moments pictures. Now that they are older Nathaniel has a plain, black Bible, Benjamin has a Faith to Grow on Bible, and Samuel has gone through several kinds. I have gotten tickled at how he points out things in certain storybook Bibles that are either illustrated too cutesy or or just worded poorly. His favorite Bible story is Noah's Ark. Ever since he found out that Noah's Ark was not a tiny boat with smiling animals sticking their heads out the many windows, he points out that what is in his Bible is not "real".(actually i was a little unhappy about one being too "real" in the Adam and Eve illustations) Tapestry of Grace recommends The Children's Illustrated Bible, but I just have not been super-impressed with it. I have really wanted something he could help read. But not a happy baby story book. Is that too much to ask?

I found a Bible at Lifeway in Huntsville one day. I really wanted to get it, but the dust jacket was ripped. Granted, it was just the dust jacket. Being the perfectionist that I am I was not paying $22.00 for something ripped. I planned to go home and order it online.

The only problem was, I forgot the name of the Bible. Do you know that if you just type in "children's Bibles" into your search engine you might stare at the screen for days? I went to Lifeway and to Christian Book Distributors with no luck. I even called the Lifeway store to ask them what the name of the children's Bible with a ripped dust jacket was. They said they could not find one with a ripped dust jacket.

So I was determined that I would find it. No matter how many hours I was not getting out from in front of the computer until I had found it. I searched all the Bible publishers that I could think of first. granted, that meant Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. Nothing else would come to mind. Then I did remember that the Bible said something about a big picture or a timeline. Every time I typed "big picture Bible timeline" I kept coming up with this, which looks nice, but is not what I wanted. But truthfully, I had never gone past the first few results from that search. I finally found it!!! Not only did I find it, but it was cheaper than it had been at Lifeway!!! Hooray!!!

I am a big fan of customer reviews. I read some of the reviews. They were mostly very, very good reviews. I only saw two negative ones. One of them said that their kid did not the Bible because everyone in it had a sad face. Because I had flipped through it myself, I knew that was not the case. There were lots of smiling, happy people drawn in the pictures. The other said this:

I am a very conservative Christian and I just didn't see this Bible giving an accurate account of the stories. It seemed to have a very "interpretive" spin on them. One I didn't think was accurate or appropriate. I was really disappointed, to say the least. I did, very much, feel like a lot of the stories emphasized God's "punishment" of people. While I believe strongly in discipline, and believe that "God chastens those whom He loves," I do not think the theme of "punishment," which I thought was pretty blatant in this Bible, was doing God's word justice at all. Yes, there is eternal punishment, and the Bible teaches that, but it is not what is being taught in this Bible. Further, the themes of love, redemption, grace, etc are too subtle to really be enjoyed, much less even seen by children. For instance, this Bible says that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden to "punish" them. This is interpretive. It was not a punishment, it was a disciplinary measure to help them see their sin and their need for God. It was to teach them what life is like without God, and realize how they had been wrong. Further, it was to protect them--God did not want them to eat from the Tree of Life, and "live forever." I interpret that to mean, as in a mortal life, in their sinful state. God, in His *mercy," protected them from eating from that Tree, which would have been far worse since they were in a fallen state. I know that is *my* interpretation, but the "punishment" theory in this Bible is also interpretive. It would have been much better to simply leave out the interpretation, and just tell the story.

Uhm...okay. I always thought that banishment from the garden, hard labor (work), pain in childbirth, etc... WERE punishments.

It came the day before Easter!! How cool is that??? I ordered enough to get free shipping (because I am a cheapskate) so that meant it could have taken longer to get here. As a matter of fact we were not expecting it until the next Wednesday. Samuel LOVES it!!! Most of it is not something that he can sit and just read all by himself, but he can read parts of it. He gets excited that he can read it. Being a "Storybook Bible" means that it does not have *all* of the Bible stories in it. What is does have in it, however, is that Jesus is the theme of the Bible. It shows how the Old Testament gives us hints about Him. It shows how the New Testament is all about Him. It even talks about end times. Most of our story Bibles do not. It is a wonderful Bible!! No, it is not one he can use from now until he is old and grey.
But it seems just right for now.

ps. We threw the dust jacket away. It just gets in the way while we are reading.