Little Children

In his book, The Welcoming Door, Kenny Kemp tells the story of Jesus Christ's life during the time between  his childhood and ministry, the time when the Bible is silent. In this fictional account, Kemp shares three vignettes in which Christ observes or participates in the events that will later be told as some of his most well known parables: the prodigal son, the talents, and the good Samaritan.
While the stories themselves are fictional, they have the potential to teach readers more about the character of Christ as Kemp personifies him. He shows Christ as kind, hard working, and gentle. He shows his compassion towards all and his willingness to forgive. He also shows Christ's love for children.
I loved how Kemp depicted Christ's interactions with his siblings. He was fun loving and teased his brothers, but he was always kind. He used his interactions with them to teach them in a kind, older brother kind of way. He also took time to pay attention to the little children throughout the stories. He was kind to them, even taking time to "train" one of the children on how to be his apprentice while he made a door. Through this apprenticeship he helped the boy, Arah, to gain confidence and faith.
These depictions humanized Christ and his love for children. It added a new dimension to Mark 10:14 where Christ says "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." I really liked being able to visualize Christ's love for children in a concrete story, not just an abstract idea.

Picture found on flickr.com

While these accounts were fictional, I think they have value in their ability to humanize Christ. They take his abstract teachings and give them a base, a concrete story to work from. While the stories do have flaws (their conclusions seem almost too easy at times) they teach good lessons and help the reader see Christ in a new way.