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[Following is a volunteer review of "The Chest of Visions" by Tim Ferguson.]

Author Tim Ferguson, a retired social worker and an active youth group leader, found that teaching the gospel was often difficult. He devised a tale to weave together with the gospel of Jesus Christ to better support the youth under his tutelage in their faith and understanding of the Bible. Thus, The Chest of Visions came alive.

In a beautiful stroke of luck, and possibly divine intervention, Mattpaul uses a device that echoes a computer and discovers Tim’s website. This aligns two different, yet similar universes, and friendships begin to bloom. Mattpaul illustrates to Tim about his life, his favorite game of kickuml, his struggles of knowing that soon he would be following in his father’s professional footsteps, and the mysterious Chihaysu he has started to hear about from a new Mountain Person friend. He soon happens upon Chihaysu’s sermon, which parallels the teachings of Jesus in our world, and firmly believes in the existence of God.

Simultaneously, Tim opens his website for others to question and speak with Mattpaul. Here Alex, a member of a youth group struggling with his faith after a tragic accident takes the life of his best friend, begins to relay his consuming darkness and emotions that have been suffocating his faith to Mattpaul. Together they relay their struggles and create a friendship that quite literally knows no bounds.

The Chest of Visions was an exquisite rendition of the Bible and the prophets therein. I relished in the simple, yet straightforward descriptions, and the feelings and components of religion and Christianity that intertwined together. It was easy to pick out the similarities between Bible parables such as the Good Samaritan and the instructions on prayer. When I have read similar novels, I have always felt that you run the risk of being overly didactic, but that was not the case here. Rather, one can empathize with the problems and faith-defining moments that our characters are facing. The simple yet beautiful illustrations added to the ultimate air of the book and created a stronger empathetic connection to the characters. I daresay there is not one thing I dislike about this book. This tome was also professionally edited, and I only found a few inconsequential errors such as missing commas or misspelled words.

I am more than happy to give The Chest of Visions a full 4 out of 4 stars. It was a rapid read that hooked me in from the beginning, and it was religious without being overly moralistic. I would recommend it to others, especially to youth that may be struggling with their faith or looking to reaffirm it. I’d like to give a special thanks to the author, Tim Ferguson, for an especially enjoyable read.

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The Chest of Visions
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I liked how it was "religious without being overly moralistic". It's true that making children want to read and learn the story of the Bible is hard. I'm a volunteer teacher myself in Sunday School and ministries, and this book seemed to be helpful. Glad to see that you enjoyed and liked it as well.

Sooo...this book was basically teaching the Bible using a science fiction template?? That's a fairly unique idea. I've read many, many sci-fi books and only happened across a few that incorporated any type of Christianity. Even then, they usually did it poorly. It sounds like this author did a much better job of it!

"... it was religious without being overly moralistic."

I think that would be my favorite thing about this book. Great review!

This sounds very intriguing. I'm usually put off by books with religious themes due to how didactic they are as you said, so it's rare to see a book like this. Might check it out sometime. Thanks for the great review!