The Picture Bible

• I grew up with a Picture Bible, and just recently my mom found our old one and gave it to me. It's been so funny looking through it. It brings back my first impressions of all the Bible stories as I first learned them. My mom was surprised when I told her that I actually still think of the images from the Picture Bible, especially in connection with the more obscure Old Testament stories. I have a very visual memory, so this makes sense to me, but it might sound odd to others. (My brother thinks it's weird, and he used to read these exact stories to me.) Before I could understand the words, these pictures were the story.

• As an adult, sometimes I do my Bible reading without really visualizing how dramatic and colorful the Bible is. Our society is choked with colorful media. They have figured out every effective way to hook our attention with colors, movement, and ideas. Even many textbooks are very colorful and designed with visual hooks and illustrations. Depending on these gimmicks can shorten the attention span, and trick us into settling for being entertained instead of taught. So back to the Bible, the grown-up ones without the pictures. With a little imagination added to the black & white pages, Bible stories are the most interesting, dramatic, romantic, suspenseful, complex, and life-changing stories in the world. And if you don't have the imagination for it, start by reading a Picture Bible. The illustrations are a little old-fashioned now (the hair!), but it's a really fun way to see the Bible stories, and is the perfect way to start out teaching them to a child.