3 Reasons I Wrote “The Best Bath Ever!”
Last fall, my second children’s book in the Pictures of Gospel Grace series, The Best Bath Ever: How God Washes Away Our Sin and Makes Us Brand New, quietly entered the world. This week, it has been getting some fresh attention on Instagram, so it seemed like a good time to share why I wrote a book about Naaman and the best bath he ever took.
The Best Bath Ever retells the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 and helps children see how God’s grace not only washes sinners clean, but also changes them from the inside out. Here are three reasons I wanted to tell this story.
1. I wanted kids to see gospel grace in a lesser-known Bible story
The Pictures of Gospel Grace series was born out of a simple desire: to retell lesser-known Bible stories in a way that helps children see God’s saving grace throughout all of Scripture, culminating in the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. Many children know the “usual” Bible stories, but Naaman’s story is not always among them. Yet it is full of gospel beauty.
Naaman is not an obvious hero. He is a pagan army commander, a man who attacked God’s people, worshiped false gods, and brought sacrifices to idols. He is also a proud man, offended by God’s simple command to wash in the Jordan. He wants healing, but he wants it on his own terms.
That is part of what makes this account so compelling. God uses a captive servant girl, a faithful prophet, and a muddy river to humble a powerful man and draw him to Himself. This is not a story about trying harder or being brave enough. It is a story about grace. Naaman cannot heal himself, and he cannot buy what God gives freely.
I wanted children to see that God’s grace often meets us in ways that humble our pride and expose our need. Naaman’s story points beyond itself to Jesus, who does something far greater than heal leprosy: He cleanses sinners and makes them new.
2. I wanted to emphasize that salvation includes a new heart
This is probably the deepest reason I wrote the book. I am convinced there is often too little emphasis today on the Holy Spirit’s work of giving believers a new heart at conversion. We rightly speak of forgiveness, cleansing, and justification, but we sometimes say too little about the Spirit’s transforming work in the inner person.
Naaman’s story helps address that. In the book, after God heals him, Naaman realizes that something deeper has happened: “God hadn’t just cleaned me on the outside. I was different inside too… I wanted to know him better. I wanted to do what he says.” That was intentional. I wanted children to see that when God saves us, He does not merely remove guilt; He changes our hearts.
The back matter makes this explicit. It says that God changed Naaman’s heart so that he turned from worshiping idols to becoming an obedient follower of the one true God. It also explains grace as God’s gift through which Jesus gives us “new hearts that trust in him,” and describes repentance as God changing our hearts so that we turn from our own way and trust in Jesus.
That matters deeply. True conversion includes a fundamental shift in our attitude toward God and His Word. Before salvation, we resist, excuse, and insist on our own way. After the Spirit gives life, there is a new posture of submission. Not perfection, of course—but a new direction. The heart that once said, “I want my way,” begins to say, “I want God’s way.”
That is one reason Naaman’s story is so powerful. At first he is angry that God’s way seems too simple and too humbling. But by the end, grace has bent his will. He obeys, is cleansed, and becomes a changed man. I wanted children—and the adults reading with them—to see that the Holy Spirit does this same kind of heart work in every true believer.
3. I wanted to give families simple language for big truths
A third reason I wrote The Best Bath Ever was to help parents, grandparents, and teachers talk with children about sin, grace, repentance, and new life in clear and memorable ways.
That is why the story begins with familiar childhood experiences of getting dirty—mud, sticky spills, snow, and messes. Children understand dirt. They understand the need for a bath. That everyday experience opens the door to talk about a much deeper problem: sin.
The book explains that all of us are dirty and sick with sin, and that sin makes our hearts proud and stubborn so that we do not want to listen to God. But the good news is that God loves sinners and provides what we cannot provide for ourselves. Jesus took the dirtiness of our sins to the cross, died in our place, and rose again so that sinners may be washed clean.
But the book does not stop with cleansing. It also speaks of change: “The Holy Spirit will help you to trust and follow GOD’s way, not YOUR way.” That line captures something I especially wanted children to hear: salvation is not only pardon from sin’s guilt, but also the beginning of a new life of trust and obedience.
The back matter supports that goal by giving families simple definitions of key words like grace, repent, sinner, sacrifice, and Bible, along with Scripture references for further discussion. My hope was to create a book that not only tells a story, but also gives families tools to keep talking after the story is over.
I am grateful the Lord is putting The Best Bath Ever into more hands this year. If this little book helps children see their need for Christ, trust Him for cleansing, and understand that the Holy Spirit gives new hearts that want to listen and obey, then it has done what I hoped it would do.
*Order both books (Best Bath and Dinner with the King) from:
