Reading to our children is something we’re all familiar with. Whether it’s a classic like Dr. Seuss or whatever our child picked our at the library, reading to our children gives a bonding experience, teaches them the value of books, and continues to develop their minds. Even if they can’t always understand it, we also want to form their worldview around interacting with the Bible. For our kids, the Big Picture Interactive Storybook Bible (affiliate link).
The Big Picture
After four kids over the course of 11 years, we’ve seen a fair share of Christian books aimed at kids under 5. While they’re rarely problematic, they each face the problem of being incredibly basic. Simplistic sentences tell a basic Bible story over the course of a 20-second reading session, and that’s fine for young minds. However, there’s little to differentiate the story of Jonah with a slow-moving adolescent dog who eats 10 desserts over the course of two nights, then we’re supposed to learn a lesson when his siblings each get 1 ¼ of a dessert on the third night. Both stories are just something that happens, and each could be equally true to a two-year-old.
Not so with the Big Picture Bible. After each story, written in an engaging way that actually makes it enjoyable for my older kids to listen to, there’s a 1-2 sentence lesson at the end. Each time, it takes these seemingly-unrelated stories and does the most important thing any biblical discussion can do – it points to Jesus Christ.
For example, the story of the prophet Joel tells about locusts and famine that came to Israel in order to call them to repentance. Although an interesting story on its own, they dig deeper and compare Joel’s call to repentance to the ultimate call from Jesus Christ.
Another example is the story of Jesus healing the leper. Although this story shows the power of Jesus Christ, the story itself isn’t what’s important. The big picture here is that Jesus was willing to make the leper clean of his disease just like Christ is willing to cleanse us of our own disease of sin that makes us spiritually dead.
The book is loaded with a daily gospel message for children to hear, seeing the relevance of Jesus Christ throughout the entirety of God’s word.
An interactive app
This children’s Bible earns every word in its long name. Lifeway has produced an app that goes along with their book. Each story has an icon that you scan, and the images on the page will stand up like a pop-up book. For some stories, the pictures will even come to life and tell the story themselves! The app also puts blue stars by each story you’ve done, making it easy to always find your place.
My #1 choice for young children
It’s strange to say, but it’s refreshing to find a children’s storybook Bible that points to Jesus. Similar storybooks certainly aren’t wrong for presenting Bible characters in simple stories, but the way this book always brings out the “big picture” makes it difficult to recommend anything else. The stories are just long enough to teach kids patience, detailed enough to make it enjoyable for all listeners, and true to the gospel message woven throughout the entire Bible.
We’re currently on our second copy of this book because, well, we have a 1 and 3 year old who can always reach it. We’ll be buying a third one once this one starts falling apart, and may buy a 4th before we’re done with the book. Each purchase is worth it because we want to continue seeing, as a family, the incredible way that all of biblical history had been pointing to our incredible savior, Jesus Christ.
You can pick up your own copy through my affiliate link here, or directly from Christianbook.com at this link.
