Several years ago a verse about light stood out to me in a powerful way. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, the Apostle Paul says, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” It struck me that Paul was telling the story of the Bible through God’s command from the beginning to let light shine. This light has pierced the corridors of human history and now illuminates our hearts through Jesus. I’ve always wanted to tell the story of the Bible through this motif for children.

In the book, I begin with creation and God’s command to let light shine. I use darkness to illustrate the fall and sin. Throughout the book, the darkness has a noise it makes when it is on the move. But in the end, the reader sees that it is really the noise of the darkness running away from the light. The darkness isn’t super scary, it’s a scaredy-cat!

While there are real things to fear in the dark, much of our anxiety about darkness is misplaced. The light often shows us we have nothing to fear at all. For Christians, we recognize that no matter how dark this world gets, God is still in control and his light will win in the end. Darkness will be defeated.

My favorite spread is early on in the book: the little girl with the Bible open illuminating the room. I love the girl’s sense of wonder looking at the light pouring out of the Bible, and I hope kids capture the message that the Bible sheds light on everything in the world.

My goal is for parents and kids to be reminded that the light of the gospel will win in the end. I hope they are encouraged by the biblical story of Jesus’s victory over all things. No matter how dark life can seem, God’s light will prevail. There can be real challenges in life, but Christians can take heart because no one can take our hope away. The light spoken at creation has brought God’s hope to our lives. I pray that, through this book, readers will catch a memorable vision of the big story of the Bible!