If He Had Not Come (Review)

If He Had Not Come, by Nan F. Weeks and David Nicholson, is a sweet Christmas story that is sure to be enjoyed by all ages. The story was originally written in 1938 by Ms. Weeks, and has been republished by Nicholson, who added illustrations and devotional material.

The premise of the story is that a little boy, Bobby, reads the words, “if I had not come,” from John 15:22 before bed. He then dreams of a world that has never known Jesus, a world with no churches, no Christian hospitals or homeless ministries, a world that exhibits little kindness or compassion.

I enjoyed reading this book with my daughter. We’ve read many Christmas-themed books, but this stands out with its unique plot.My teen enjoyed the book too, so this isn’t just a story for young children, although young children would certainly enjoy it. We read the book and discussed the “interactive topics” and “going deeper” questions one night for our advent devotional time, discussing all the ways we thought our world and our lives would be different if Jesus had not come to earth. The illustrations are sweet and old-fashioned, suitable for a book that is set in the 1930’s.

I read the Kindle format of the story, but would recommend the print version. On my 8.9” Kindle Fire, the pictures were very small. If I held the Fire vertically, the pictures were on a separate page from the accompanying text. In landscape, 2-page view the pictures were on the facing page, but not full-page size as I would have expected.

Other than the formatting oddities, I do recommend If He Had Not Come, and we will certainly read it again next Christmas.

I received this book free in exchange for my honest review from BookLook Bloggers.