This is one amazing picture book! It’s by Rita Lorraine Hubbard with pictures by John Holyfield. It tells the inspiring true story of William “Bill” Lewis. I didn’t mean to pick it as an Easter book, but it turns out it is, in a way. I’m so glad that I happened to find it and read it aloud to my two youngest kiddos the week before Easter. How positively Providential! I saw it at the public library and it just drew me in so I checked it out.

It tells the story of a black man who was a slave in Tennessee. He is definitely a Christ-like figure. He was so enterprising that he asked his master to “rent” him out so he could make his master more money. He then asked the master if he could have some of this extra money. He saved and saved his earnings and eventually bought the freedom of his wife, his child, himself, his parents, and his siblings. I thought of how amazingly loving and selfless this man was. It almost brings tears to my eyes. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. The story is fabulous and the pictures are lovely.

The author probably didn’t intend it to be interpreted with a Christian worldview but I immediately thought of the Christian symbolism. If you or your children are having a hard time feeling Christ’s love maybe this book will help if you read it and then realize that what Bill did gives a glimpse of how much our Savior Jesus Christ loves us. Jesus “hammered out his soul,” so to speak, both body and spirit, to overcome sin and death, so that we can have our liberty. May we always praise His name and receive this gift with full eternal gratitude and fierce intention to become all that God wants us to be.