The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
A Book Review By Bryan Knedgen
Sally Lloyd-Jones penned The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, with illustrations by Jago, almost a decade ago. She won the Gold Medallion Award for Baby’s First Bible and is an author of multiple bestselling children’s books. She sits under the tutelage of Dr. Timothy Keller, who is the preaching pastor at Redeemer Church in Manhattan. I decided to do this book because while I disciple multiple men in my life; the most important person God has given me stewardship over is my own son, MartelAs a parent, I wish to find as many tools to help me display God’s love, joy and hope to him. This is one of the tools that continues to help me try to communicate who God is and what he has done in Jesus Christ and our world so that Martel will know God and willingly and faithfully participate in his kingdom building mission.
The book is divided into 44 chapters, each only six to nine pages long. At the end of each story, it connects how that story feeds into the Meta narrative of the God’s mission to redeem the world. I will focus on a couple of chapters that highlight this for the review. The first chapter is not a biblical story but a chapter on hermeneutics, or theory and methodology of reading this book and interpreting how God deals with his people and his mission. The chapter explains that God wrote, “I love you” in everything he has made, and highlights John Calvin’s idea that creation (us included) are mirrors reflecting God’s glory. She goes on to explain that the Bible is not a book of rules, nor it is a book of heroes to be like, but it is about the story of God rescuing his broken creation after humanity has rebelled against him.
The Good Shepherd is another chapter I wish to highlight. It is a little of the life of David as a king, immersed in the metaphor that David is the shepherd king and a man after God’s own heart. Lloyed-Jones omits the story of Bathsheba but brings up David murdering his good friend. She then explains the Davidic Covenant as a promise to David that from him and his line, the king shall come to recuse the world. She moves on to explore his side as the writer and composer of the book of Psalms and how he wrote Pslam 23. She then re-envisions the psalm for a child to understand and links it with how God is the greater and good Shepherd.
Switching over to the New Testament, the story of Zacchaeus is included. Lloyd-Jones tells the narrative of how Zacchaeus is a man with no friends because he steals his own people’s money. The people ostracize him because they know he is stealing from them and so their only weapon is to degrade him and be unfriendly. However, when Jesus enters the town, he becomes Zacchaeus’ friend and leads him to repentance. Lloyd-Jones displays that God’s love is not only for the oppressed but also for the oppressor.
The last chapter is “A Dream of Heaven”, where she tells the story of John’s revelation of heaven. She describes how Jesus came to John when he was in exile and gave him a wonderful vision of Jesus sitting on the throne where all the animals and saints are gathered around Jesus singing and praising him. Satan is defeated and a beautiful city is coming down from the heavens and the sun and moon are no more since God dwells with his people as their light and sickness, death and sin are no more. In the midst of it Jesus is making all things new. Lloyd-Jones then breaks the vision and it goes back to John writing. Where, instead of writing the end because the story isn’t finished, John writes “Come quickly, Jesus.” The last page is a prayer for the reader to accept Jesus into their life and explains how this story is ours too.
I haven’t read many children’s books, but most that I have read are awful. This book is the exception and quite good at that. As a parent it challenges and guides me in how to talk about God to my son and other children. For example, she uses phrase “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love,” to describe God’s love for his children. Beginning our explanation of the character of God with love and constantly reinforcing his character is vital in helping participate in our children’s spiritual formation. Lloyd-Jones displays how God focuses on the broken, neglected, and marginalized of society. I also want to praise the style and unique artwork of Jago. He uses a variety of different tones, colors, shapes and sizes for people. It is a creative and visually interesting style that beautifully depicts God’s story for children and adults alike. The most valuable lesson that The Jesus Storybook Bible teaches is how both children and parents are to read their Bible, to see God as the Hero and everyone else as supporting characters in hisstory.
Despite the fact that I think Lloyd-Jones has done an awesome job crafting a book for children, there are still some flaws. While I applaud her for trying to connect every story to God’s bigger story some conclusions are reading too much into the text. One illustration is the story of Noah, which is good until she tries to connect the rainbow, as a metaphor for God hanging up his warbow, to mean he is not going to punish his world but punish himself. Another criticism I have is some lack of key events, such as the division of Israel. I know that a book can only contain so much but that is a major turning point for Israel and David’s line.
I highly recommend this to you and your children. Don’t be surprised if you learn something new in this book. I did. I hope that you and your children will recognize God’s “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love,” through this book as I have.