The Specialness of You!

Open this children's picture book and sun beams and blessings will pop out--that is just some of the wondrous things God has for everyone.

Children will learn that God loves them so much, that they are filled to overflowing with His love. Everywhere they go, that love shines out of them. It comes out in many ways such as when they help others, or say something nice. The glow of it makes children beautiful.

When scary things happen, such as the first day of school, or thunder storms, God is there to make sure they are alright. No matter what a child is thinking, the Lord knows it all, even if he is afraid. Just turn to God, He is there for everyone.

This beautiful, amazing book tells children many of the ways God loves, blesses, and protects them. It is full of incredible pictures that reinforce all those ideas.

God's love is like rain falling on dry, sun parched land. Children will not understand that statement, but they will understand those feelings--and that is what they will get from this five-plus-star book. I highly recommend it. Get it for Easter, get it for anytime, you will fall in love with it. Ages three to eight will enjoy this book.

This was inspired from God's blessing in Numbers 6:23–27:

"The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace."

Thank you, Zonderkidz, for providing Tickmenot with a book to review. Opinions are my own. ( )

First sentence: Today is the day the world gets to see the beautiful person God made you to be. Wherever you go, it's God's love you're expressing, so God sends you out with this special blessing. May the Lord bless you with strength from above and fill you with power to give and to love. May God protect you all through the day. God's always close--that's where God will stay.

This picture book is a VERY loose adaptation of Numbers 6:22-27. It is absolutely a beautiful blessing from Scripture. It is grounded in a time and place, and, like many other blessings found in Scripture, it isn't unconditional. [This is absolutely not the position taken by the authors. They don't really address the context of these verses at all. That isn't their aim or mission.]

The picture book is inspired by this bit of Scripture. It is a soft, warm, fuzzy, comfy, cozy. It is reassuring and self-affirming. It sometimes reads vaguely, intentionally unoffensive. It is written in rhyme.

I have read this one twice now. Each stanza [or spread] hits differently when I read or reread it. I think each stanza could lead to some substantive discussion. But I'm not sure that in actuality that is how the book will be used. And there isn't really a "wrong" way to read this one with little ones.

It is inspired by Numbers 6:22-27. These verses are from the Old Testament. The gospel isn't necessarily obvious and straightforward in this passage. What this book is missing--and this is my personal opinion--is Jesus Christ and the gospel. Again, it isn't that the authors removed the gospel or twisted the gospel. They just didn't add in the gospel. There were phrases that just hit slightly off--again my own personal opinion.

"So God has a plan--it's you that God sends to share with the world that God's love never ends. So be kind to others, your sister and brother, to show what God's like as we love one another. May your life be "good news" to all those that you meet--your family and neighbors and friends down the street."
There are at least two ways to read the book. One way is to give the authors the full benefit of the doubt, to assume that they were not implying anything weird theologically or equating God's expression of love in Jesus Christ with our expression of love as we share tacos with everyone. The second way is to have doubt, to begin to question every statement to see how it lines up with Scripture.

It is a very loose adaptation. You can't pair up stanzas with specific lines or phrases from Scripture. And the picture book goes above and beyond the words and their meanings. It expands the theology from Numbers 6:22-27. Part of me is like--show your work. Where in Scripture does it teach this, show that, which verses led you to make this statement as fact. Many of the statements--surface level at least--sound true, feel true. But just because something sounds nice, sounds true-ish doesn't necessarily make it theologically sound.

The note to parents reads,

The Hebrew understanding of "blessing" is that it is a "divine filling." When the priests raised their hands and spoke these words, God's Spirit flowed through the priests on to the people. With this blessing, God's people were filled with power to live out who God called them to be in the world. The same is true today. God sends us out into the world so we can show everyone what God is like. We get to carry God's name with us wherever we go. Use this book as a resource to speak God's blessing over the children in your life. With this blessing, you will equip them with God's power to live out who God is calling them to be and what God is calling them to do as they go through their day.

The note just feels theologically iffy, off, strange. ( )