No matter where you fall in the pronunciation debate of hard “g” vs. soft “g” we all know a thoughtfully placed gif can take any text, email, or post to the next level of relatability. We decided to take GIPHY’s Top 10 GIFS of 2021 list and pair each GIF with a Bible story.

If you are asking yourself “why” the answer is because it’s fun! AND there’s nothing wrong with making the Bible even more relatable.

So without further ado…

10) King Darius When He Finds Daniel Uneaten

After being tricked into throwing Daniel into a den of lions, Baby Yoda’s excitement level HAD to have been matched by King Darius when he found Daniel not only alive but completely unharmed the next morning. Daniel 6 says,

¹⁹Very early the next morning, the king got up and hurried out to the lions’ den. ²⁰When he got there, he called out in anguish, “Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?”

²¹Daniel answered, “Long live the king! ²²My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.”

²³The king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den. Not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.

9) David Dancing Undignified in the Streets

I have always loved the story of King David dancing foolishly and full of joy in the streets as the Ark of the Covenant is moved to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6. Michal though doesn’t find it amusing and I’m sure if GIFs were a thing in 1000 B.C. she would have been texting this exact GIF to her friends describing David’s “ridiculous” celebration that she did not consider appropriate for a king.

¹⁴And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. ¹⁵So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns…

²⁰When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”

²¹David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. ²²Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!”

8) When Jesus Says to Peter “Get Behind Me Satan”

I imagine this GIF is the exact reaction of all the other disciples when Jesus absolutely puts Peter in his place in Matthew 16. You know from that moment on they all thought twice before disagreeing with Jesus.

²¹From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

²²But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”

²³Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

7) John & Simon Peter Looking for Jesus’ Body in the Empty Tomb

Fans latched onto this moment from the Super Bowl LV halftime show where The Weeknd looks lost and stressed. When John and Simon Peter get to the tomb you KNOW they are just as frantic in their search for Jesus’ body while simultaneously stunned he’s missing. John 20 says,

³Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. ⁴They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. ⁸Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— ⁹for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

6) Happy Birthday Jesus!

Every cool grandparent who couldn’t be with their grandchild on their first birthday would send an educational Peppa Pig GIF! Since Mary, Joseph, & Jesus were likely in Egypt on his first birthday this would be the perfect GIF for the grandparents back in Nazareth to send baby Jesus! Matthew 2 says,

¹³After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, ¹⁵and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”

5) The Serpent Saying to Eve “You Will Not SURELY Die”

A wink and a deceptive laugh certainly followed this quote by the shrewd serpent in Genesis 3. Because of this lie and the deception of Eve & Adam all of humanity was born into a sinful world. Spoiler alert though… Jesus makes a comeback! And it was all a part of God’s sovereign plan. Boom.

¹The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

²“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³“It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

4) Jonah in the Belly of the Whale Regretting Everything.

You know that moment when you look back at your life decisions and know you would do it differently if given the chance. That is 100% the vibe Pikachu is giving and we know that’s how Jonah sulked and then repented in the belly of the fish that swallowed him. Jonah, much like myself, apparently learns best the hard way.

¹The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ²“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

³But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish…

¹⁷Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

3) Isaac When He Realizes HE Is the Sacrifice…

Imagine the SHOCK that went through Isaac’s body as his dad tied him to an altar… Honestly, this Bible story is an amazing display of what it means to trust the Lord. Abraham and Isaac were both undoubtedly terrified but Abraham continued to trust in God’s faithfulness knowing He would make a way. And He did! Read the full story in Genesis 22.

⁶So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, ⁷Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

⁸“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

⁹When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. ¹⁰And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. ¹¹At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”

¹²“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”

2) After 6 Full Days of Creation… God Rested.

If a basic 8-hour workday can have me exhausted I can’t imagine how ready God was for the 7th day when he modeled to all of humanity how important it is to rest. If you are the kind of person who is always on the go and never gives yourself a break OR if you are looking for any excuse to take a nap check out 7 Times the Bible Says to Just Take a Nap. Genesis 2 says,

¹So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. ²On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ³And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

1) The Pharisees When Jesus Says “Let the One Who Has Never Sinned Throw the First Stone”

“The Office” will never not be funny. If you ever wish to express absolute disdain, look no further than this! I love this moment in scripture where Jesus shows compassion and mercy to the woman caught in the act of adultery. The Pharisees wanted to stone her for her sin but in John 8 Jesus turns the situation around saying only someone without sin could throw the first stone. Of course, they all knew they were guilty and I’m sure they each walked away with a similar look of contempt as Stanley.

⁴“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

⁶They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

The Best Christian Memes of 2021 | Blimey Cow