"Picturing Heaven: 40 hope-filled devotions with coloring pages" written by Randy Alcorn and illustrated by Lizzie Preston

Picturing Heaven contains 40 hope-filled devotions with coloring pages, written by Randy Alcorn
and illustrated by Lizzie Preston.

Each devotion features a particular theme. On the left page of the spread, one or two Bible verses are followed by a paragraph of discussion. The right pages is a full-page illustration to color related to the devotion topic.

This book features a table of contents so you can seek a particular theme, or go through the devotions in order. The introduction explains the book's purpose, to develop a view of the New Earth God is preparing for us. The book is intended to serves as both a creative expression and a spiritual inspiration. In line with both of those goals, there is also a blank page provided for sketches at the end as well as a lined page for notes.

An example of a devotional is "Earth's present beauty: Just a hint of what's to come," which starts by quoting Isaiah 6:3, about the earth being filled with his glory. The devotional discussing is quite beautiful: "When we see a roaring waterfall, beautiful flowers, a wild animal in its native habitat, or the joy in the eyes of our pets when they see us, we sense that this world is--or at least was meant to be--our home. If we want to know what the ultimate Heaven and our eternal home will be like, the best place to start is by looking around us" (40). The accompanying picture is of waterfalls and intricately patterned mountain cliffs. It's actually a little hard to tell what it is without the context of the devotional and prior to color being on the page.

The coloring pages are ideal for those who love to color intricate patterns. Every image is made up a smaller shapes to color in. For example, even images of animals like elephants that are realistically much the same color are broken up into little areas to color. This allows for more imaginative color pairings and time to reflect upon the devotion as you color repetitive patterns. Every page also has some parts already colored in with a yellow-gold color. I'm not really sure why that was done this way, and I'm not a huge fan of it. The printed color stands out among colored pencils or markers as being unnatural.




However, the cover of the book features a gold foil filling in some of the images, along with printed colors fading to black and white illustrations. It is beautifully done and a very attractive cover. The book is also a nice square size, giving ample room for the illustrations.




My favorite pages are the ones with animals on them, as that it what I prefer to color. The devotions vary somewhat in terms of quality, but most are quite good. I see this book as a successful coloring devotional, but the stand alone parts aren't spectacular. This book offers a lot of opportunity for quiet reflection. I could see accompanying it with prayer as well.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher but was not required to post a positive review.