Have you ever YouTubed the cartoons you used to watch as a kid? It’s amazing how, returning to them as adults you see things that flew right over your head at the time. But with fresh [grown-up] eyes you see sinister sub-plots or bizarre characters that you can’t believe didn’t render you emotionally scarred as a child (I’m looking at you Roger Ramjet! How a guy who clearly had drug dependence issues ended up in a kids’ cartoon is mystifying to me).

The book of Jonah has an image problem. Decades of treatment in children’s books and well-intentioned kids’ ministries have left a lot of us thinking that this is a story for children – G-Rated and quaint. We can think it’s a nice little morality tale about doing what God wants you to do or he’ll stick you in a fish.

But over the next four weeks at Renew, in our Sunday gatherings and in our Community Groups, I hope we’ll all take a fresh, grown-up look at this book. We need this story. We need it because Jonah is a story about redemption and grace; about forgiveness and frustration; about prayer and providence.

Is Jonah just a fishy tale? Let’s find out together.

Grace and Peace,

Steve Boxwell