Book Review: EMPTY!
Entrance to Easter
Easter is the biggest weekend on the church calendar. Churches typically go all out to make it a highlight of the year for members and new guests alike. Preachers spend time crafting their best sermons, worship leaders piece together the perfect set list for the gathering, and kids leaders pull out all the stops with the most beautiful crafts, delicious snacks, and creative lessons they can find.
The centerpiece of Easter is, of course, the resurrection of Jesus. While the resurrection story is central to our faith, it’s a story most Christians are so familiar with that it becomes easy to breeze right by the empty tomb. We’ve heard the story so many times that we don’t stop to consider this picture of God’s abundant love and mercy that he offers through his Son’s life, death, and resurrection. We could use a fresh entry point to remind believers how massive this moment of sacrificial generosity and overwhelming grace actually is. Thankfully, Joshua Cooley offers a great hook to anchor us to the beauty of the resurrection in his latest kids book, EMPTY!
Two Sides of Empty
Cooley begins by looking at all sorts of ways kids experience empty in bad ways. Some them are silly, like a kid freaking out when his parachute pack is empty—Ahhhhhh! Others are more realistic, like siblings realizing their hamster had escaped and left behind an empty cage—Oh no! Empty can definitely be bad. He points us all the way back to Genesis 1, when the universe itself was empty. “God didn’t want a big, dark, EMPTY, boring, and scary world.” So God spoke, and used his words to create a beautiful world world that we’re able to enjoy.
While it’s easy to imagine all the ways that empty can be bad, frustrating, or dangerous, Cooley also reminds us that empty can also be good! From kids finding empty amusement park lines and the non-stop fun that awaits them to empty trash cans and laundry baskets that mean their chores are finished, empty can definitely be a good thing!
The Best Empty
This hook of considering the ways empty can be good and bad eventually delivers us to the best empty. Naturally, as we’re diving into Easter, the best empty that’s ever been empty is Jesus’s empty tomb. When the authorities crucified him, they laid his body in a borrowed tomb, and closed it up with a heavy stone. His disciples, family, and those who had experienced his teaching or healing touch were crushed by his death. They wept and wailed with the sadness they felt.
Thankfully for them, and for us, Jesus’s body behind that stone isn’t the last image of Jesus we have. In her sorrow Mary Magdalene returned to Jesus’s tomb, and what she found changed the world forever. The stone was rolled away, and the tomb that had held Jesus’s body was EMPTY! Jesus was alive! It’s the greatest empty in history.
Connecting Empty
One of the things I love most about this book after reading it with my boys, is Cooley’s ability to connect the big truth of the resurrection with the highs and lows of experiencing emptiness in the real world. My kids laughed at some of silly examples and accompanying illustrations (diving into an empty swimming pool, or having to wear goofy PJ’s to school on picture day), but they also helped them connect to the idea of empty that Josh is building. I’m a big fan of authors using humor to help kids make sense of big ideas.
He also does a fantastic job of walking through the implications of the empty tomb to kids as they’re reading. He lays out clearly our need for a Savior, and why our salvation had to come from Jesus’s sacrifice. There’s a real emphasis on sin (for parents and kids), the punishment we deserve, and how Jesus defeated sin and death to set us free. Jesus invites us to follow him and experience his grace, mercy, and forgiveness. The good news of the empty tomb is central to Easter and the life of the Christian.
Final Thoughts
The subtitle for the UK release of the book is, “Can something empty ever be good?” It’s harder to include Christian language (savior) on book covers across the pond, which led to this alternate title. Maybe it’s all the years of kids ministry and coaching, but I LOVE this question being attached to the book. It’s a great jumping off point for how Cooley highlights the empty tomb as the lynchpin for our faith. Even if you get the American release, consider including that question as your introduce the book to your class or kids at home.
EMPTY! is an easy-to-recommend addition to the list of solid Easter/resurrection resources to have on your home or classroom shelf. It’s easy to read, full of fun and engaging illustrations, and the hook of considering how something empty can be good or bad works for a wide range of ages. Younger kids will love it being read to them, and I could see older kids having fun thinking of their own examples of empty in a classroom lesson as well. It lends itself well to an Easter lesson, and the illustrations could inspire plenty of object lessons for a curious classroom as well.
Parents can also get a lot of mileage out this book at home too. Whether it’s at Easter or returning to it as a reminder of the value of the resurrection in their discipleship journey, these pages will be beat up in no time. While the tomb remains empty, thanks to this fun little book, your child’s understanding of the resurrection doesn’t have to be.