Tag: bible story (page 2 of 9)

The God Contest

This week, our middle two daughters competed in their first spelling bee: a circumscribed affair, thanks to Covid, of course. But leading up to the Bee, our dinner hour turned into Spelling Bee Practice, with Mitch and I taking turns tossing the girls words to spell while we ate our meal (and occasionally tried to stump each other).

Why it’s so funny to misspell words, I can’t say, but it is. By the end of each of these dinners, at least one of us laughed so hard we cried and the rest of us had succumbed to various stages of helpless giggles. When I asked our first grader to spell “sting,” she stood up beside her chair and said, cheerfully, “Sting! B-E-E, sting!”

Or when Mitch playfully asked Josie (almost five) to spell her name? “J-O-something-something-E!”

The God Contest, by Carl Lafteron | Little Book, Big Story

But, hilarity aside, this was their first time competing, and excited as they were I know they were nervous, too. What if they lost? What if they won, and had to go on to face the next round of the competition? Standing up in front of your own class is daunting enough. What if they got up there and then forgot the “a” in “each”?

Carl Laferton’s new book, The God Contest, explores a different contest: that between Elijah and the priests of Baal (or, really, between God and Baal). This contest asked the question, “Who is the true God?” In the delightful tradition of the rest of the Tales That Tell the Truth series, The God Contest shares a favorite biblical story, but rather than treat that story as a complete entity, separate from the rest of Scripture, this book shows how the story of Elijah and the prophets points toward Jesus. The Israelites weren’t the only ones to wonder who was the true God, after all, and God settled the question once and for all not in a blaze of fire, but in a blaze of life at Jesus’s resurrection.

The God Contest, by Carl Lafteron | Little Book, Big Story

Alas, my daughters did not win their spelling bees, though it sounds like they each lasted a while and they sure worked hard. But God’s contest is settled: he is the victor. Yet rather than keep the prize for himself, he has given it—lavishly, abundantly—to those who trust in him. May this book point those young readers to the One who loves them so.


The God Contest: The True Story of Elijah, Jesus, and the Greatest Victory
Carl Laferton; Catalina Echeverri (2021)


Disclosure: I did receive a copy of this book for review, but I was not obligated to review this book or compensated for my review in any way. I share this book with you because I love it, not because I was paid to do so.

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, & the Midnight Song

The other night as we finished reading about Ananias and Sapphira in For Such a Time as This, one of our daughters sighed happily. “I love when they tell stories I’ve never heard before,” she said.

And I know what she means. The Bible is full of so many stories—some of them whole worlds tucked into two or three verses—that I often come across passages and feel certain I’ve never read them before. “How does that happen?” my husband wondered the other day as he read the story of King Joash for what felt like the first time. “It’s like I’ve never read this story at all.”

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, and the Midnight Song (Bob Hartman) | Little Book, Big Story

Maybe we’re just indifferent readers, or maybe it’s a curious work of the Spirit, to mute certain stories for us until just the right time, and then bring them blazing forth in full choral glory. Scripture being what it is, with the properties it has, I think it’s the last one.

And so, I have a certain fondness for children’s books that veer off the beaten Noah/Daniel/David path and tell stories like this one, the story of Paul and Silas in prison. This story is striking and powerful, but because Scripture is filled with striking and powerful stories, it is sometimes easy to overlook this one, short as it is.

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, and the Midnight Song (Bob Hartman) | Little Book, Big Story

Bob Hartman draws readers into it through sound—the sound of singing, of an earthquake, of the jailer drawing his sword—which makes this book fun to read aloud but also invites young readers into the scene. Hartman doesn’t just tell the story but creates an experience around it, vivid and animate and accessible, and filled with memorable characters.

Like all the Tales That Tell the Truth books, this one is illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, who continues to be one of my favorite illustrators. The way she captures the energy and expression of the figures, the way she uses symbols to show complex things (like the sounds of singing, or an earthquake, or a soldier drawing his sword) makes even a Philippian jail hospitable for young readers.

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, and the Midnight Song (Bob Hartman) | Little Book, Big Story

These books continue to be among my favorite picture books for our family, and, as always, I’m eager to see which story they plan to tell next.


The Prisoners, The Earthquake, and the Midnight Song: A True Story About How God Uses People to Save People
Bob Hartman; Catalina Echeverri (2020)


Disclosure: I did receive a copy of this book for review, but I was not obligated to review this book or compensated for my review in any way. I share this book with you because I love it, not because I was paid to do so.

Love Made

When reading a picture book about the creation of the world, one doesn’t expect to make it a third of the way through the book before God actually creates anything. But Quina Aragon’s book Love Made spends the first part pages looking not at what God has made but at who he is. He lacks nothing, but lives in perfect joy; he is three in one.

Love Made, by Quina Aragon | Little Book, Big Story

This language banishes the Far Side image of God at a drafting table, compass in hand, and suggests a God so exuberant, so perpetually filled with delight, that his joy spilled over “into what we call creation.”

Love Made, by Quina Aragon | Little Book, Big Story

Aragon is a spoken word artist as well as an author, and her words leap and soar and spill over the page, with a rhythm as fun to read as it is to listen to. Scotty Reifsnyder (Exploring the Bible) captures that same bright energy in his illustrations, making this book a treat to read to the littlest listeners (but don’t be surprised if bigger ones drift in to listen, too).


Love Made: A Story of God’s Overflowing, Creative Heart
Quina Aragon; Scotty Reifsnyder (2019)

30 Prophecies: One Story

While we’re living lives close to home—perhaps homeschooling kids we hadn’t planned on homeschooling or filling time with toddlers but without libraries—please feel free to comment below or email me (thea@littlebookbigstory.com). I would love to help you find good books for your family! I can’t drop them off at your house, but I can at least try to find some titles your family will love. (And thank you so much to those of you who reached out last week! It is a joy to get to help out somehow, even from afar.)


You know that middle part of the Bible with all the skinny books by people with names like Habakkuk and Obadiah? That’s a mysterious stretch of Scripture, even for many adults. But 30 Prophecies: One Story invites kids to consider those books (the minor prophets) as well as the better-known major prophets (like Isaiah and Jeremiah), by connecting those prophecies with the One who fulfilled them—every single one.

30 Prophecies: One Story, by Paul Reynolds | Little Book, Big Story

Though a picture book, 30 Prophecies: One Story is a devotional intended for older readers. Paul Reynolds lays each prophecy out in a way that helps readers grasp the context for the prophet, the prophecy itself, the way Jesus fulfilled that prophecy, and the way that prophecy connects to the rest of Scripture. Each reading closes, as well, with an application section and a prayer. It’s a beautiful and coherent way to read the Bible, and for my history-minded daughter, I think it’s a way that will resonate with her.

30 Prophecies: One Story, by Paul Reynolds | Little Book, Big Story

In hindsight, this would have made an excellent devotional for Lent. Ah, hindsight. As it is, it would be a great Easter gift (and will be, in our house).


30 Prophecies: One Story
Paul Reynolds (2019)

Jesus & the Really Big Surprise

We are, like so many of you, firmly entrenched at home. Mitch’s office is the living room couch; the girls and I are back to homeschooling, as schools are closed state-wide until late April. Our church has moved to online services, and we only leave the house to shop for groceries or to take a short—but socially distant—walk to the neighbor’s, to watch their chickens. Even the library is closed.

It is a strange time.

Jesus and the Very Big Surprise, by Randall Goodgame | Little Book, Big Story

I know that many of you are in the same boat. I found myself wondering what I can do, from here, to help other families who are suddenly at home all the time with kids, and here are a few things that crossed my mind:

1) I love helping you find good books for your kids, and I know that the long days at home may call for great new read-alouds, or chapter books for a school-age reader now passing the time at home. Or books full of art project ideas. Or books with elaborate pictures that will keep little kids busy for a while. You are always welcome to email me (thea@littlebookbigstory.com), and I will do my best to help you find the book (or books!) you’re looking for. (You don’t even really have to know what you want. Just tell me a little about you and your family, and I’ll come up with a short list of ideas for you.)

2) The Little Book, Big Story book list is always available to you! It is organized by genre, and each book is labelled by age, and each title links to the full blog review (and each review contains a link to the book’s Amazon listing), so you should be able to find some new family favorites there. You can access the book list here.

3) If school closures mean that you are unexpectedly homeschooling, I would love to help in any way I can. Please feel free to email me (thea@littlebookbigstory.com). I may not be able to answer your questions myself, but I may be able to help direct you toward someone who can. And a lot of curriculum publishers and online programs are offering free or dirt-cheap resources right now for families like yours. I may be able to connect you with some that suit your family. (Do you know of any good ones? Please share them in the comments below!)

4) Lastly, I’m going to keep sharing good books here. Because we’re in the middle of Lent, I already had some great, gospel-filled books scheduled, and I love that we get to keep reminding each other of the truth even now, when things seem so uncertain. But God is not uncertain. He is steadfast and unchanging, and though we are living through one of scarier chapters of his story now, we know that this story has a happy ending.

And that is what today’s book review is all about.


Jesus is surprising: A God that became a baby? A master that serves his servants? A king that dies for his people? This is the truth at the heart of God’s Very Big Surprise.

Jesus and the Very Big Surprise, by Randall Goodgame | Little Book, Big Story

In this latest book in the wonderful Tales That Tell the Truth series, Randall Goodgame (of Slugs & Bugs!) uses the parable of the good master to tell the story of Jesus’ ascension and return. He also weaves the gospel into the story. And he gives us a vision for what we can do to serve Jesus while we wait for his return.

Jesus and the Very Big Surprise, by Randall Goodgame | Little Book, Big Story

This is a small picture book, but it is filled with big and glorious truths. And they are truths our families need to hear again and again right now: God knows the end of our story! None of this comes as a surprise to him! I am so grateful for books like this one, that encourage adults as well as kids.

You can find the rest of the books in the Tales That Tell the Truth series (and I really hope you read them all) right here.


God’s Very Big Surprise
Randall Goodgame; Catalina Echeverri (2020)


Disclosure: I did receive a copy of this book for review, but I was not obligated to review this book or compensated for my review in any way. I share this book with you because I love it, not because I was paid to do so.


Hang in there, friends.