A few weeks ago at the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus, Ohio, I met Ohio artist Jane Dippold, and I discovered a book she illustrated that sets out to reassure children in interfaith families.

The book is Papa Jethro, written by Deborah Bodin Cohen, a rabbi (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2007).

“When Grandpa Nick visits Rachel, they paint with watercolors, play with model trains, and go to the park. Rachel and Grandpa Nick have just about everything in common, except that she goes to synagogue and he goes to church.”

Rachel wonders why she is Jewish and Grandpa Nick is Christian. “Shouldn’t we be the same?” she asks.

To answer, Grandpa Nick tells Rachel about “Papa Jethro”—Moses’ Midianite father-in-law—and his relationship with his Hebrew grandson, Moses’ son Gershom.

Their relationship was a lot like Grandpa Nick’s and Rachel’s.

Grandpa Nick admits that it was sometimes hard for Gershom to be Jewish while Papa Jethro was Midianite. But they often liked to share what made them different. And, he says, Papa Jethro told Gershom, “I love you just the way you are.”

Some readers will want Grandpa Nick to share the gospel with Rachel instead of accepting her Jewish upbringing. (And I would like that too, of course.)

But for now, in the pages of Papa Jethro, Rachel and children like her can experience being assured of the love of all the people they love

That’s what every child deserves. And it’s an ideal place for faith to begin.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7