My children always loved reading the Bible and listening to my husband and I narrate stories every day. Even my eldest daughter would sit beside me while I narrated stories to my youngest son. Each story in the Bible tells us about God and the wonderful things he has done for us. Bible stories for kids are the best medium to teach our kids moral values such as honesty, kindness, respect, trust, and so on.
Here are 5 of the most famous stories from the Bible that you could read to your child today.
1. Birth of Jesus
We all know that Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December every year. The day is celebrated as it was the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
The story goes that a young woman named Mary was promised to a man named Joseph. One day, an angel named Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would be blessed with a son who will be “God’s own son”. He told her to name him Jesus, which means saviour, as he would be born to save humanity.
As per the prediction, Mary became pregnant. One day, Mary and Joseph were travelling to Bethlehem. The city was filled with people as everyone had collected in their respective hometowns to register their names for the census. The young couple could not find any rooms and hence took shelter in a cattle shed. Mary gave birth to baby Jesus in the shed.
Many shepherds and three wise men – as per the instructions of angels – followed a bright new star to Bethlehem to see Jesus, the saviour.
2. Creation of the universe
As per the Old Testament of the Bible, in the beginning, nothing existed besides God. One fine day, God decided to use his power to create the universe.
The first day, he created heaven and Earth. He brought light on earth so that there would be night and day. The next day, he created all the water bodies. The day after that, he created drylands as well as greenery in the form of plants and trees.
On the fourth day, he created the sun, the moon, and an infinite number of stars. And on the fifth, he created sea creatures in the waters and birds in the sky. On the sixth day, God filled the land on earth with living creatures of all shapes and sizes. He also created Adam and Eve – the first human beings on the planet. Lastly, God declared the seventh day to be the day of rest.
3. Adam and Eve
When God created the earth, he moulded clay in the shape of a man. He named him Adam and created a beautiful home in a garden called the Garden of Eden. Adam was very happy in his home but slowly grew sad and lonely.
So, God took a rib from Adam and created a beautiful woman by the name Eve. Adam and Eve lived happily in their home. Everything that God had created was at their disposal. The only thing that was forbidden to them was a fruit from the tree of knowledge – growing in the middle of the garden.
Satan could not tolerate looking at the happy family. He turned himself into a snake and tempted Eve to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Unable to resist the temptation, Eve, as well as Adam, took a bite of the forbidden fruit.
This changed the lives of Adam and Eve. They were not happy anymore and God was upset to see his children unhappy. However, he could not prevent the consequence of eating the forbidden fruit. He told them that they will now have to suffer throughout life, live in pain, be unable to attain anything easily, and die someday.
4. David and Goliath
In the story of David and Goliath, the Israelites were ruled by a king named Saul. They were in conflict with another group of people called the Philistines. The Philistines had many giants living on their land – one of which was Goliath. Every day, Goliath would call out to the Israelites and challenge them to a duel. He promised that if he lost, all Philistines would become their servants, but if he won, all Israelites would become their servants.
Since Goliath was a giant, Saul was unsure who to send for the duel as a loss would mean all of them would become servants. Among his men were three boys who were three of the eight sons of a man named Jesse. Jesse heard about Goliath’s challenge and was worried about his sons. He packed up some food for them and sent it with his youngest son, David.
When David reached the point where Saul and his men had gathered, he heard Goliath ask, “Is there no man fit to fight me?” To this, David said that he would fight Goliath. Saul did not agree at first but David said he has God by his side, which is why he is confident he will win. Though Saul earlier did not trust that God would help him, this time he did.
Saul got his men to cover David with heavy armour to keep him protected. David, however, thought it was too heavy and went to fight the giant with just a few pebbles in his pouch and a slingshot.
When Goliath charged towards David to attack him, David pulled out a pebble and shot it at Goliath. He hit him right between his eyes. The giant fell to the ground. David, thus, defeated Goliath with aid from God.
5. Noah’s Ark
We often hear many references made to “Noah’s Ark”. Here’s what it’s all about.
There was once a man named Noah who, according to God, was the only righteous man left on earth. Year after year, God watched all the humans he created become evil. One day, he decided to do away with everyone so that there is no more evil on the planet. He planned to completely flood the planet in order to destroy all evil.
Before he brought heavy rains upon the planet, he called Noah and asked him to build a huge ark. Noah obeyed God and built a humongous ark. God then asked Noah to bring a male and female of every living creature there is, to the ark. In return, he would save the lives of Noah, his wife, their three sons and their respective wives.
Noah gathered all the animals and shut the door of the ark. From then on, it poured for 40 days and nights. All living creatures were killed due to the floods.
The entire planet was covered in water and it was impossible to step out since there was no land to stand on. Once the earth dried up and became habitable, Noah released all the animals from the ark. All the animals then started a new life.
Though God had decided to flood the planet so that he could get rid of evil, he assured that we wouldn’t do it again. He promised Noah’s family and all the living creatures that he would never do such a thing again. It is said that the rainbow we occasionally see in the sky is proof that God is keeping up his word that he will live and let live.
I hope you were happy to read these 5 famous bible stories for kids. If you knew them already, I’m sure it was a great refresher.
Which is your kid’s favourite bible story? Let me know in the comments!
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