Give a Bible to someone describing the best bit: 40acts #13

I have a soon-to-be five year old nephew who I adore (as I adore all my nieces and nephews.)  He is also my Godson.  I had the privilege of baptizing him and on that celebration Sunday we certainly made a good pair.   He was a little baby all smiles and drool and I was a student minister all smiles and drool,  just cutting my teeth in ministry.

He was dressed in a family heirloom baptismal gown.  He was in his parent’s arms as his mom and dad stood at the front of the church answering the questions of faith.  Where they stood was over an old air grate. As they were answering, “Do you believe in God and in God’s love?” the air kicked on causing my nephew’s gown to flutter like it had suddenly come to life.   With the sudden rush of air it was like  the announcement was being made:  the Holy Spirit has arrived!

The Christian faith is something so precious and important to me.  I love to share it with others though increasingly in our cynical world I am shy to do so.  There are a lot of misconceptions about religious people (just look at the way Christians are portrayed in the Media and pop culture.)  I continue to come across biases even in my own extended family.  But since my nephew is also my Godson, technically speaking, I have permission to share my faith with him.

My husband and I got him a lectionary story bible as a gift at his baptism.  A year or so ago I got him a book of bible stories for young kids and found out that he loved the one about Daniel in the Lion’s Den.   This time I got him another book.

Now it isn’t a bible but it highlights the bible and beautifully describes and illustrates images of God.  So often the image of God for people is limited to the proverbial old man with a white beard sitting in the clouds.  Few take the time to explore the many ways that God is revealed in the Christian scriptures.

The book is called Images of God for Young Children by Marie-Helene Delval.  It is lovely. Because of today’s challenge, I plan on highlighting my favourite pages before giving the book to him.  My hope is that he’ll have his favourites, too.

There are a lot of great Bibles, and different versions depending on what you’re interested in.

One translation that I’m really enjoying right now is the Common English Version.  Another one that I find quite creative is called The Brick Testament  (the illustrations are all done in Lego)

What version do you read?