How to Read the Bible, Through the Eyes of a Child

On New Year's Eve we flew east to spend a week with our Ohio family.

We gave the kids (my nieces and nephew) their Christmas presents on New Year's Day, which included a daily devotional Bible for each one.

Kasen, at age 8, sat down and read to himself that day’s story of how God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the fish in it, the stars and the moon and all the land animals.

Tessa immediately asked me to read from her book. After we finished page 1, she asked me to read page 2. I said that wasn’t the point. The point was to read one page each day so that you would be better able to remember that day’s story. And then tomorrow we could read page 2. And each day she could read a new page and then next New Year’s Eve she would have read the whole book. She turned to the last page and asked if we could at least read that one tonight. And so we did.

Then Kenzi asked to be read to out of her book. As we read about how God created the heavens and the earth she asked, “Why can’t anyone see God?” I told her that people used to be able to see God, but not anymore. Now we can’t see him until we go to heaven. When we got to the part about how God created light and darkness she asked, “How did he make them?” I told her he thought about what he wanted to make and then he just whispered that name, like “sun” or “nighttime”, and then there it was. She said, “I think when he whispered it, he also used a paintbrush to make all those things.” I told her that God made all the colors too, so a paintbrush made sense to me.

Kaylee, ever the organized one, took her book to her room to find a home for it, a place all its own.

Tysen carefully rewrapped her present and placed it under the Christmas tree. “When I wake up tomorrow,” she said, “I will be so surprised!”

This might have been my favorite response of all, reminding me that each day I get to open God’s word like it is brand new, brimming with untold revelations meant just for me. What a gift!

Kari, these kids’ momma, told me that through these gifts I had served their family well.