Gentle Readers,

BibleRhymes.com is offering a darling little children’s book. The cover price ($17.95) seems awful high for a hardback copy of such a short book (32 pages, but the e-book is free and well done. Granted, part of the proceeds are going to supply books to orphans and other needy children.

The rhymes are kinda cutesy, but it is a children’s book. Doctrinal purists will be upset (and I must admit I was rather annoyed.) On the sixth day, one could conclude on his planet, the woman was created first, at least going off the sentence structure, as he rearranged the order for a rhyme, and needlessly as woman and man rhyme.

Particular sticklers will note, contrary to what the book implies, before the fall, our first father and mother were vegetarians and did not eat meat, as death was unheard of then, so more accurate than “a buffet of fruit and good meat” would have been, “of fruit and delicious soy burgers.” It could equally be argued that point is a tad academic for a children’s book and for that matter accuracy on this point could be taken as promoting vegetarianism post-fall.

Regardless, doctrine-wise, the rest of the storybook is a playful, but fairly accurate depiction of the creation story as described in Genesis.

What impressed me most was the graphic full-color illustrations. A few panels, such as the planets on day one, fell flat for me, and I’m sure it won’t suit everyone’s tastes, but to me, the artistry seemed perfectly suited for a child’s book. Especially in this age group, the pictures will express the wonder of the creation story more than the actual words on the page.

Of course, the pictures also highlight the confusion many have over the order of creation, with light created on the first day, and the sun, stars, and the moon not until the forth. We’re so limited in our understanding of the world and how things operate, it boggles the mind to think God created light before he created the objects that give off light. But in thinking about it, that is another display of God’s power. The illustrations may give some children the impression God created the sun twice, but such questions are easily answered and encourage dialogue between parent and child about the creation, so the flaws are not necessarily lethal. I’ll leave it to the parents to decide.

But I suspect a glance at the beautiful artwork will probably make up most of their minds.

On an unrelated note, I’ve given quite a bit of space recently to the negative symbolic meanings of the color red. But symbols usually have a positive meaning as well as a negative, and red is no exception. It can speak of danger, but it’s also the color of love and life, via blood, and due to the effects of the blood of Christ, spiritual cleansing and forgiveness. The contextual clues around the color, such as the nature of the object it colors, will show whether it’s meant in a positive or negative light.

Getting back to a more literary note, I have a column featured on the Lost Genre Guild and over at Adam’s Blog that discusses Amillia Taylor, a preemie born at a mere 21 weeks, six days gestation, and relate her record-breaking fight for survival as well as some under-reported goings on in the abortion industry to the technological advances and society I predict will grow out of the current trends in “Frozen Generation,” a short story featured in the anthology Light at the Edge of Darkness

In Christ’s Love,

Andrea Graham