MY INSPIRATION FOR THE BOOK?

A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS!

A wise old philosopher (I think it was Forrest Gump) once said: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” I think the same can be said for kids. Certainly, when my wife, Catherine, and I had our twins, we had no idea what we were going to get. Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, Catherine is the one in the picture rolling her eyes, not just at the twins’ typical antics, but at her devoted husband who wasn’t just tolerating, but enjoying said antics, at a very elaborate family wedding we were attending.

As for “what we got” with our twins: two highly spirited, extraordinarily willful, and comical beings who ensure that there is never a dull moment in the Demetros household. Great qualities, but sometimes they made our nightly Bible studies challenging, to say the least. But let me start from the beginning.

Nightly devotional time has always been part of our family’s regular routine. When the kids were little, they loved when Catherine and I would read to them from their children’s Bibles, with their cartoony pictures, simple language, and selection of only the most colorful Bible stories. But once they hit their preteen years, when we had to start reading from the full Bible, our nightly devotional time went downhill, and fast.

In short, they found the actual Bible text dry, often difficult to understand, and they complained that they were bored. So they decided to transform our nightly Bible study into the “Coco and Christopher Comedy Hour.” Their brand of humor was pretty lowbrow. It typically involved some bodily function or something equally objectionable – anything to torture their well-meaning and devoted father.

During one of our Bible sessions, they got the idea to jump on my legs, wrap their arms around my calves and tickle my feet. As my legs lurched in every direction and I would writhe in tickle-induced agony, they would yell something like: “This isn’t my first rodeo!” or “Oh boy, we got us a feisty one!” I soon realized, they were timing each other to see which one lasted the longest on the “bucking bronco,” i.e. me, before I could kick and catapult them off the bed. Their maniacal laughter only served to heighten my fury as I tried in vain just to get through a single Bible story.

That’s when I started my search for a book that presents the key stories and teachings of the Bible in a way that’s enjoyable and relatable for teenagers and young adults. After scouring both bookstores and the internet, I was surprised to learn that the book I so desperately needed simply didn’t exist. That’s when I prayed to God for help. I felt that the Lord heard my prayers, but was offering an unexpected solution: “You, my dear child, need to tell your kids the key Bible stories and teachings in your own words. But make sure it’s entertaining, clear, and relevant to their own lives. Oh yeah, and make it funny.” I thought, “Lord, couldn’t you just ask me to build an ark in the middle of the desert, or slay a giant with a slingshot? That would be SO much easier!”

But I nevertheless answered God’s call and put pen to paper. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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