God With Us by Matt Mikalatos is a graphic novel to appeal to all ages. It’s a wonderful retelling of Bible stories from the point of view of Jesus (“Yeshua” in this story) on the road to Emmaus as he meets Cleopas and companion. The pictures are vibrant and realistic. The fictional characters, a boy and girl, ask questions that prompt more stories and illustrations from Jesus.

Occasionally, it’s hard to tell the sequence of the boxes the pictures are in, but that’s true of most graphic novels. This one, where Jesus relates stories ranging from creation to raising Lazarus from the dead, sweeps the reader along with the fascinating depiction of the stories. I especially love the way Jesus is drawn—just the way I like to picture him.

"God with Us" is a Christian graphic novel for those already familiar with the Bible stories. A lot is left out of each story. For Creation, we get the words, "Let there be..." but there's no text for what God commanded into being, only a picture of it. You need to be familiar with the Bible text so you can follow what's going on, otherwise it'll be confusing. Also, the point they made about Creation was that the WORDS God speak become reality, so it's strange not to include the actual words.

Also, this is framed as Jesus/Yeshua on the Road to Emmaus. However, instead of "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself," Jesus told only a small portion of the stories. And some of them were parables or didn't point to Him as the Messiah. His fellow travelers often told the stories, usually about something they saw or heard that Jesus did. For Noah's Flood, a foreigner first gave a pagan flood legend, then a boy told an inaccurate version, and finally Jesus told the Bible version. No reason was given for providing 3 different versions nor explanation given for why the pagan version was similar to the biblical account.

I didn't agree with some of this novel's theology. After the Flood, God/Jesus puts his rainbow-colored war bow in the sky. "This is my war bow. I'm setting it aside forever. I'm placing it in the sky where you can see it. No more will there be war between God and humanity." This isn't what the Bible actually says, and it's portrayed as God forgiving humanity, which basically means there's no need for Jesus. Then after the story of Jesus getting baptized, someone says, "Humanity was saved by Noah's trip through the water, and Yeshua did the same thing" like it's baptism that washes away sins. The author did make a point that God provides the sacrifice, and "if we look to Yeshua, we can live," but there isn't really a gospel message about accepting what Jesus did on our behalf or exactly what that was.

The novel did use language a child can understand. The illustrations did have a brown-skinned Jesus, but they didn't always stay true to the Bible. For example, for Jesus' tomb and Lazarus's tomb, people mentioned rolling away the stone, but the stone was shown as a rectangle plug inside the doorway. When Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, the angel was portrayed as a gigantic, red eye with four blue wings instead of the biblical "cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth..." The angel that came to Mary was initially about the size of a child, with blue wings and a yellow tunic with wings on the front, and blue pants. He had to get Mary's attention because he's so unimpressive. Not quite how angels are described in the Bible. And though some animals were shown loading onto Noah's ark, the interior was shown as practically bare, with the people sitting on the floor and a few animals roaming freely about.

This novel did try to link the Old Testament to the New in the sense that we're told of prophets raising people from the dead and then of Jesus raising the dead. Or how Elisha caused there to be more oil in the jar as the widow poured it into empty jars, and Jesus fed a crowd with only a few loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus seemed like just another prophet at times. The novel wasn't really about Jesus fulfilling the prophecies about the Messiah.

What is immediately obvious when first picking up this book is that Jesus is not a blond-haired,
blue-eyed, white suburban American male. Amazing! In fact, nobody in the entire book looks like
they are of European extract. I really appreciate this.

The book uses the walk from Jerusalem to the little town of Emmaus, recorded in Luke 24:13—25,
to imagine what Jesus might have said to his companions on that walk. Matt Mikalatos mixes Old
and New Testament stories in a fairly seamless manner in order to communicate who Jesus was
and why he came to earth.

This strategy means that this is not an “illustrated Bible”. It is a narrative with a purpose that
selects stories from the Old and New Testaments to progress the narrative.

I do think that following these intertwined stories might be a bit difficult for people who have
never read the stories in the Bible or have not previously heard them.

The three versions of the story of Noah and the flood are done quite well. At this point it becomes
obvious that any time God interacts with humans, Mikalatos has chosen to represent God in the
form of Jesus. That is not how we usually picture this in our minds, but it is certainly theologically
correct---Jesus is fully God in human form.

God With Us leaves many words hidden between the lines. This makes it ideal for a parent and
child to read the book together. The parent can make sure the child understands what has been
implied, but not stated explicitly. This is a great family read!

One of the names given to Jesus is Emmauel or God With Us. This new graphic novel depicts just that. Jesus is on the road with Cleopas, his wife, and grandchildren. They are on their way to Emmaus. Along the way, Jesus (the Word - John 1:1) shares stories that are all about Him. From Genesis 1:1 --In the beginning -- to Revelation 22:21 (The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen) there is one story.

Matt Mikalatos does a wonderful job of seamlessly switching from the Old Testament to the New throughout. I loved the details like the Word at creation -- a glowing figure filled with the names of Jesus-- connecting to the end page with Jesus once again a figure filled with His names. Often, handwritten letters are inserted to show what God, a prophet, or Jesus himself had to communicate. The words are paraphrased and help kids understand the intent of the speaker. There are two kids in the story and they behave very much like any kid would on a long, dusty journey.

Unfortunately, the journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus was not as long as depicted in the book. It was about seven miles. Granted, to walk that far takes much longer than for us in our modern modes of transportation. The biblical narrative in Luke 24:13-35 tells us that Cleopas and another disciple were returning to Emmaus after the Passover. They are joined by a stranger who shares stories with them. Once they reach their home and break bread with their travel companion their eyes are opened and they recognize their Savior. Immediately they return to Jerusalem to tell the disciples in the Upper Room.

For those interested in the biblical narrative and some helpful notes, I am sharing this Bible Hub article:
https://biblehub.com/topical/c/cleopa...

A big thank you to my GR friend Rosh for bringing this new read to my attention. I really loved the storytelling so much! This book reminded me of a beloved comic book I read at my grandmother's house as a child. It was the story of Esther and my grandmother's name was also Esther. Reading this book brought back those memories so vividly. The style was very similar to this book.

I also want to thank WaterBrook & Multnomah and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

In a Nutshell: A graphic novel that narrates stories from the Bible, using Cleopas’s encounter with Jesus on the way to Emmaus as the foundation. Innovative in concept and execution. Excellent (and racially-authentic) illustrations. Might be a bit tricky for the target audience of middle-graders as the narrative isn't linear. But adult supervision will help. Recommended.

Children are always attracted to books with illustrations. So using a graphic novel to teach them stories from the Bible is a wonderful idea. But this book doesn’t just stop at this basic intent. Rather, its presentation sets it apart from other similar works.
The story uses Cleopas’s trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus as the setting. As the Gospel of Luke mentions only Cleopas by name in its references to this journey that takes place on the day of Jesus’s resurrection, this book adds some fictional characters – Miriam (Cleopas’s wife) and Rachel and Moshe (siblings and Cleopas’s young neighbours) – as his travelling companions. Cleopas and Miriam are grieving after Yeshua’s crucifixion (Jesus is called by his Hebrew name ‘Yeshua’ in this book) and afraid that they might meet a similar fate. So when a stranger joins their group and offers to narrate stories to while away the time during the long walk ahead, they readily accept, not knowing that he was the very person they believed dead: the resurrected Lord Jesus in the flesh.
The Bible never clarifies what Jesus spoke to Cleopas and his companion disciple on the way to Emmaus. So the author has used his creativity to fill in the gaps. And when I say “creativity”, I mean it in the true sense of the word. Yeshua’s narratives and Cleopas and Mary’s discussions bring about a thought-provoking correlation between the stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament. I loved how each of them took a story from one of the Testaments and found a convincing parallel to it in the other Testament. This means that the stories don’t necessarily proceed in chronological Biblical order, but in an order that makes the comparison more feasible: in terms of shared traits with the life of Jesus.
Having two child characters makes a big difference to the storytelling. Rachel and Moshe ask several questions to the “teacher”, which helps us also understand the stories better. There is plenty of humour injected into the narrative, part of which comes through Moshe’s constant references to food.
While the core essence of the content remains biblical, the language is suitably adapted for modern readers. Moshe especially has vocabulary that suits his age. The new, simpler rendition of the Ten Commandments is truly easy for kids to understand. That said, the modified version of The Lord’s Prayer was a little too novel for me.
The parallel storytelling is a clever way of revealing the commonalities between some events of both the testaments. However, no matter how creative, the correlation between the Old Testament and the New Testament needs a certain familiarity with basic biblical stories. The lack of a linear narrative adds to the difficulty of comprehension. Moreover, I felt that the continuity of the panels was a bit off at times. As such, younger children might find the content a bit complicated to understand.
As much as I enjoyed the innovative approach to the story of Jesus, I loved the illustrations even more. The graphics are in digital art with full colour throughout. The flashback scenes come in a different colour scheme, thereby making it somewhat easier to follow the multi-thread narrative. The skin tones and eye colours were racially authentic – no enforced white skin and blue eyes here! Everyone is justifiably Middle-Eastern in appearance. The character features are also suitably rustic instead of catering to modern beauty standards of delicate features and dainty noses. Even the angels aren’t sketched with the standard western “golden blonde” look. I am so used to seeing Mother Mary in blue that seeing her in red garments took some adjusting, but I loved that creative call. The graphic personification of the Word of God was outstanding. A shoutout to that stunning cover with Jesus laughing heartily – I loved it! Books rarely depict this side of Jesus’s personality.
All in all, I loved the creativity of the concept and the illustrations. The execution is also great, but I think it might be a tad complex for younger readers. Adult guidance ought to help.
Definitely recommended to anyone looking to read unusually-structured biblical stories in a graphic-novel format. This book would make a great gift, especially on special occasions such as Easter, confirmation and so on. The official target audience for this book is middle-graders, but it works even better for older readers.

4 stars.

My thanks to WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing the DRC of “God with Us: Bible Stories on the Road to Emmaus” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

God with Us by Matt Mikalatos is a comic book/graphic novel version of the Bible that seamlessly connects the Old Testament stories that children hear in Sunday school to the New Testament and Jesus. I would highly recommend this book to children around ages 7-14. It is a very informative look at the life and death of Jesus. Some of the wording is different than what I was used to such as the Lord's Prayer, but it does not take away the meaning or enjoyment of it.

Thank you to the Publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC. This in no way impacts my review. The thoughts expressed are my honest opinions.