I've just re-read The Big Picture Story Bible to my boys Andy (5) and Thomas (8). The three of us really enjoyed it this time around. (You can now get it as an iBook, but we're not that technologically literate, and wouldn't this make it the "little screen Bible" not the "big picture Bible"? There's something about those big glossy pages...)
I love the way The Big Picture Story Bible tells the whole story of the Bible in a small space. It's like The Jesus Storybook Bible on steroids. It misses a lot of details - my boys were in fits of giggles over how it moves from one generation to the next ("and then Isaac...and then Jacob...and then Joseph..."). But it gives a far better, more Christ-centred overview of salvation history than I had until I read Graham Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom as an adult, and you can use other children's bibles to fill in the details.
All this is by way of introduction. What I really want to share today is the delightful way that theology makes its way into a child's head. I was reading the Christmas story in The Big Picture Story Bible, when Andy stopped me and started pointing at the pictures and telling me the story himself:
They went in there, and they said, "There's no room in there. There's no room in there." And so they had to sleep in the stable.And then, as he realised the full import of what was happening:
So God sended himself into the world!And then, as we read the story of Jesus' baptism:
Jesus was God's best beloved!It just goes to show how much theology children are capable of understanding if you just give them the chance.
1 comment:
Oh so true. They often understand more than we do, I think, because their heads aren't cluttered up with other stuff. They simply hear, and understand. And can then beautifully explain it. If we're ready to listen.
Post a Comment