Two by two, the story tells us - every kind of living thing boards the boat. At the end of the great storm, God sends Noah a sign in the form of a rainbow. Animals, boats and rainbows may decorate our nurseries, but is this the worst children’s story ever? It’s the time when God was so frustrated with humanity that God wiped everything out and started over.
In the famous story, Jonah is swallowed by a whale. But the Bible actually tells us that it's an unspecified "big fish" - like a killer whale, except what is getting killed isn't Jonah or the sailors on the ship but Jonah's insistence that he ought to go his own way in life.
Born in his father Jacob’s old age and by his father’s first love, Joseph was both set apart from and despised by his older brothers from the start. When Jacob gives Joseph a luxurious, ornamental robe (the famous “coat of many colors,” as described in the King James), his older brothers plot to kill him. But from the things people plan for evil, God turns to good.
It’s the original underdog story. The enemy Philistines stand before King Saul and the Israelites in the Valley of Elah. For weeks, the massive Philistine warrior Goliath calls for the Israelites to send out a challenger. Saul is afraid, but offers a reward to anyone willing to fight Goliath. The young David hears and accepts. He declined the king’s armor and takes only his staff, a slingshot and five smooth stones.
Zaccheus, whose name ironically means “pure,” was a hated part of the Jewish community. A corrupt employee of the Roman oppressors, he extorted tax money on their behalf from his own people. He has money in his pocket and a hole in his heart. But when Jesus comes to town, Zaccheus gets more than he bargains for.