Do you have a favourite disciple?
I (Cathy) think mine has to be Peter. He’s impulsive, he’s passionate, he’s a blundering follower of Jesus – and I can see a lot of myself in him.
The Good Book Company has released a new children’s book, and we love it – “The Friend Who Forgives: A true story about how Peter failed and Jesus forgave”.
It’s a beautifully illustrated hardback book (roughly A4 size) which tells the story of the friendship between Peter and Jesus. It tracks the story from when Jesus called Peter to be a fisher of men, to how Peter witnessed his miracles, believed that Jesus was the son of God and grew in his faith. It goes on to depict the sad betrayal of Peter as he denies knowing Jesus, again and again and again. And then it wonderfully shows how Jesus forgives bumbling Peter and gives him a chance to tell Jesus that he loves him, again and again and again. This full and free forgiveness transforms Peter into a bold fisher of men who tells many people that they too can be forgiven by Jesus, again and again and again.
It’s a great story of personal transformation through encountering Jesus, and it shows Jesus’ willingness to offer everyone full and free forgiveness.
We’ve triple-tested the book now, we’ve read it to our sons the last 3 nights in a row and they LOVE it. Our 2 year old likes pointing out the bright and engaging pictures (although he does get a little disengaged by the end… but he has only just turned two!). Our 4 year old follows the story line, is finishing off the sentences with gusto and giggles at the humourous illustrations. We asked our 4 year old what he’s learnt from the book, and he said with a huge grin on his face that “eating fish for breakfast is weird!”, which is one of the funny lines from the book. Thankfully that’s not all he’s taken from it – he understands too that it is Jesus who forgives, and that he was even willing to forgive his friend Peter.
The book will be well read in our household. The good book company recommend it for 2 to 6 year olds – like we said it’s perhaps a little long for fidgety 2 year olds (like ours), but we can definitely see children up to 6 loving it, and perhaps a bit beyond… we’re going to try it on our 5 year old niece tomorrow.
What’s great about it is that it communicates important theology and a brilliant true story, and it does so in an engaging and fun way. We recommend it as a gift for 4-6 year olds, it will go down a treat.
It’s a thumbs up from us!
You can purchase your copy here, The Friend who Forgives*. If you do, let us know what you think!
Just so you know, we received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. We haven’t let this colour our reflections on it – we hope this is still a fair review!