What is a Storybook Look?

For years, I read the Bible chiefly because I knew I had to. Granted, I knew the words were true. I just figured that for a bunch of books from long-gone civilizations written thousands of years ago, it had to be pretty dry reading, right? Nothing like the nail-biting novels I pick up by the armload at the library.

That outlook changed while listening to an episode of Adventures in Odyssey as a college student. It was a Bible adventure about David and Absalom, and it was just as compelling as those library books. At the end of the episode, I thought, ‘Wow, that was actually a really well told story!’ I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I already knew how it would end.

Out of curiosity, I looked the story up in the Bible to see how close they had kept to the original. To my surprise, it was almost exactly the same, word for word. The dialogue, the plot twists, the setups and payoffs had all come directly from the Biblical text. All the storytelling elements we use today. I looked through other popular Bible stories and found more surprises. One compelling narrative after another. They made me laugh, cry, and bite my lip in anticipation. I never looked at the Bible the same way again. My daily reading wasn’t a chore, it was a joy! And through this Substack, I’m hoping to share some of that joy with you.