ASK #023 - The Story of Christ through Color - The Wordless book
written: May 19, 2022
The Story of Christ Through Color
Not sure if any you remember or perhaps you never experienced the wordless book from your childhood. Recently, it was brought to my memory. It was a special story and song my mother taught my two brothers and I, as young children, when we were growing up.
But first a little back story. My mother was a stay-at-home mom for much of our lives, until my youngest brother Donald went to school. But all throughout our years when we were young; my brothers, and I recall and reminisce about times we had together. It was a regular practice that my mom had with us children. It was called “Together Time.” This was a time when my mom would pull out all her crafty supplies and spend quality time teaching, instilling values and creating bonds with us children. To this day my brothers and I talk about this time.
During one of these times she taught us a song to go with the wordless book.
The song goes like this:
Black My heart was dark with sin until the Savior came in.
Red His precious blood I know
White Has washed it white as snow.
Gold And in His Word I'm told I'll walk the streets of gold.
Green To grow in Christ each day I read my Bible and pray.
(Listen - the last two lines are different in this YouTube video)
I have included a link to a YouTube video of the song.
This song is so simple but it tells the beautiful story of Christ and living for Him. Christ has done and continues to do so much for us so that we may live life here on earth, experiencing His beautiful creation.
This story is so simple that it can be taught to even our little ones. I am a preschool teacher and my little ones LOVE songs. They learn very easily and remember EVERYTHING put to song so what better way to teach even the little ones the story of Christ. But not only is this for the little ones. We all like little pneumatic devices and ways to easily remember important information (and this is important to remember).
Everything from chunking sets of numbers in smaller sets to help remember things like phone numbers…to creating little phrases like My Very Excellent Mom Just Served Us Noodles…to remember the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to remember (PEMDAS…Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction). We use devices and songs to help memorize important information.
So a little more about this book/story in a simple way that cam even make sense to the younger believers…
A little more about this book/story…
Have you ever seen a book without words or pictures? Even without words, this book tells us a story about God and the best gift of all.
The Black Page
Romans 3:23…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
This page reminds me of sin. Sin is all of the bad stuff that you and I do that makes God really sad. What are some of the things that you do wrong? All of those things we just thought about are sin. We all make bad choices. Everyone sins. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This means that there is nothing that we can do to ever make us good enough to reach God. But there is good news! God planned a way for us to reach Him.
The Red Page (John 3:16)“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s plan was to send His perfect son, Jesus. On Christmas, we celebrate Jesus' birth, and that He grew into a young man. Jesus never sinned. Because of this, He was able to take our place on the cross and die for our sins. The red color reminds us of the blood that Jesus shed for our sins. Jesus' shed blood and death means we can be forgiven for our sins, the bad things we do. But guess what? He didn't stay dead. Three days later, Jesus arose from the grave. Later, Jesus went to heaven. Now He is preparing a place for all those who believe in Him. Because of what Jesus did for you, you can have your sins forgiven!
John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”?
The White Page Psalm 51:7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
Do you see how clean this page is? Do you remember how black your heart is from sin? You don’t have to have a black heart. You can have a clean heart. Psalm 51:7 says: ..."wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Jesus wants to forgive you of all your sins and take them away. His blood will wash away all of that yuckiness and darkness. The Bible also tells us that when Jesus forgives our sins He totally forgets about them.
The Gold Page Rev. 21:18, 22 (18) And the building of the wall thereof was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. (21) And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Gold reminds me of things that are very special. It reminds me of God. God is perfect and He does nothing wrong. God created you and me.
Gold also reminds me of Heaven. The Bible even says that the streets of Heaven are paved with gold! Heaven sounds like a great place doesn’t it? But there is one thing that can not ever be in Heaven: sin. We learned that the only way to get rid of our sin is to ask Jesus to wipe it away.
Here are three questions you can ask yourself...
Do you believe that you have sinned and made wrong choices?
Do you believe that Jesus came to forgive you of your sins?
Would you like to ask Jesus to come into your heart and make it white as snow?
(If the answer to these questions is “yes” pray the following prayer with me or your own similar prayer.)
Dear Jesus, I know you are who you say you are...the way,, the truth and the life. No ne can come to the father but by you. I know that I am a sinner and make bad choices. Please forgive me! Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me, forgiving me of my sins (past, present and future) and then rising again! I ask You, Jesus to come into my life and make it clean. Please help me make good choices and live for You! Thank You for loving me! In Jesus' Name, Amen.
The Green Page
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] the glory both now and forever. Amen.
Once we ask Jesus into our heart, He changes who we are. We are a new creation. We now have Jesus to help us make good choices. The green page reminds us of how Jesus helps us grow into the Christian He wants us to be! The Bible tells us in 2 Peter 3:18 that we are to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Just as plants need three things to grow: sunshine, rain and good soil. Christians also need three things…
We need the Word of God and prayer
1 Peter 2:2 ...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
The Word feeds and nourishes us
Prayer allows us to commune with the Lord
we need to be obedient to God's Word
James 1:22-24 (22)But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24)for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
John 14:23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
We are to obey God's commands
We need trials and tests
James 1:2-4 (2)Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; (3)Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. (4)And let patience have [its] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.
These trials and tests help us mature and grow as a Christian and build our faith.
All three of these will help Christians grow up in their faith.
This seems like a simple little story, however it is a forever life changing true story that leads to salvation and life eternal.
So keep asking, seeking and knocking and the Lord will open doors and roll stones away. He has a path for our lives and wants us to reach out to Him to show the way.
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