Max Lucado is a prolific writer…to say the least. I stopped counting after 50. The Boy and the Ocean was written in 2013, but we just discovered it and I’m glad to have it as part of our library.
The book journeys us through God’s natural wonders - the ocean, the mountains, the night sky. We read and see through the little boy’s eyes and also the parent’s eyes. Lucado compares the parts of the ocean, mountains, and sky, which we cannot see, to God’s love. He does a lovely job of it.
“He couldn’t see the end of the ocean […] It never ends. God’s love is special.”
The words and experiences are simple, but the grandeur of the illustrations takes the simple and point us towards the Creator and the magnificence He has created. The illustrations are BIG in this book. They take up the entire page with white space every few pages. The colors are rich, deep, and you look upon close-ups of flying birds, fish in the ocean, and some “creator” type perspectives of the landscape below. It really is beautiful.
After each day the little boy is put to sleep either by mom or dad and he dreams. He dreams of the ocean depths, which he couldn’t see during the day. He dreams of the mountain tops, which were unknown to him earlier.
“And so the boy slept with thoughts of mountains in his dreams.”
The story ends with the family together gazing up at the night sky. The phrase his parents had repeated to him throughout his adventures begins to make sense to him as the little boy tries to count the stars. The mystery of God’s love that we can plainly see through His creation is also a love that we cannot fully grasp, know the depths of it, or the end of it.
Not that I’m a true writer critic, though I did graduate with a degree in English and wrote many a critique essay, there is one thing I would change (yeah, really, my opinion on a writer who has written 50+ books!) - Lucado writes that like God’s love the oceans and mountains “will not change”. We know they absolutely do change.
Earthquakes. Fires. Tsunamis. Everything does eventually change, erode, collapse. And that’s okay because the ocean, mountains, and sky are not God. Part of His creation? Absolutely. However, just like us - also His creations - everything transforms and nothing lasts forever on this side of heaven.
That’s my only criticism though! That’s it and perhaps kids don’t actually care about those things, but it was a thought I had as I read through the book the first time.
It’s a good book. It’s a loving book. It’s a book to somehow give a tangible grasp to our little humans of God’s great, majestic, awesome, powerful, never-ending love.
P.S. - Anything that comes out from Crossway I pretty much give it a big ol’ thumbs up!