Introduction
I have grown to love the illustrations that God gives to
illuminate his Word. Years as a pastor (youth, associate, church planting,
interim), father, and a preacher have shown me that God loves to illustrate his
Word, exercise our imagination, and that we should love to use our minds to
understand his creation and worship him! The Bible contains many animals as
illustrations, and they are often accompanied by a lesson God is teaching.
Besides the animals found in the Bible, there are sundry examples of animals found
in creation that show God’s handiwork.
This book is intended to help you to understand God’s Word
better from those scriptures, so that you can hide it in your heart and share
it with others. Each of the illustrations is brief but is the result of nearly
a decade of consideration and prayer. They have also been honed from the pulpit
and family devotionals in my own home.
I am indebted to multiple sermon illustration resources,
namely Springboards for Budding Preachers by Ray Comfort, Listen Up!
A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons by Christopher Ash, and the music
from Listen Up! by Sovereign Grace Music. Multiple bestiaries were also
consulted in the research for this book, all contained some gleaning of truth,
but none of them came close to what I am hoping to accomplish in creating a
perspicuous book that points readers to Jesus Christ from his Word, for “Faith
comes through hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Should this have been a children’s book or a sermon
illustration quick reference guide for pastors? I chose children’s book—mainly
for my own children—but it can still be used by pastors, and it would make a
great gift for your pastor. You will notice some of the language and concepts
are higher than the average children’s book; this is for three reasons:
1) to encourage parents to invest
in this book with their children
2) to challenge children in their
faith and education
3) to prepare current and future
evangelists to use God’s Word effectively in the lives of their hearers
At the forefront of my mind is a quote that has driven how I
have instructed my own children:
I want
to give my children large truths to grow into, not airy truths to outgrow, but
large truths to grow into. I want to give them a vision of the greatness, the
grandness of God that as toddlers they can’t even possibly fully grasp but they
will grow into the understanding of what those things are. ~
Tedd Tripp
I must make a note on the artwork. One of my delays in
publishing was in determining how to visually illustrate this book; the time
and cost of finding an illustrator was prohibitive. With the advent of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) I was able to use this new tool to generate each
of these illustrations in a way that told the story. I would have greatly
appreciated an illustrator, and maybe that will be a blessing for a future
edition, but I am thankful for the tools at our fingertips to proclaim the
excellencies of Christ. Each of these AI images has been checked to verify it
tells the story; some of the proportions may be off, but look at what God’s
Word is telling you, not the quality or lack of quality of the images. All of
the words were written without the help of AI, but hopefully and prayerfully
with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Dear reader, please test this book against the Word of God,
pray often, and put these concepts to work in your own life so that the name of
Jesus Christ will be magnified in you, and that you will know he is your master
and redeemer! My prayer for you is that this verse will never be true of you:
The ox knows its owner, and the
donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not
understand. ~
Isaiah 1:3
in
Christ’s service and yours,
Canyon Shearer, DMin, MDiv
Portales, New Mexico
Colossians 1:24–29
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