Why you Should Read God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell and Catalina Echeverri

This article was first published in French at TPSG.

It’s a pleasure to recommend to you yet another children’s book by a theologian I admire. In this short, beautifully illustrated book designed for children ages 3-7, Trillia Newbell grounds the diversity of the human race in a proper understanding of our status as image-bearers. What a precious lesson for us to teach our children in this highly divided age! 

Diversity was God’s Idea?

The book opens by explaining that before the foundation of the world, God had an idea far more wonderful than colour TV, chocolate chip cookies, or fireworks (among other things thrilling to young and old). His idea was to create all different kinds of people who would delight in loving him and loving one another. They would be men and women, they would have different coloured skin, and a variety of hair textures and interests. Some would love riding bikes and others would prefer to read. They would be beautifully different, yet the same in dignity and worth because they would all equally bear the image of God. 

Man Wrecks God’s Very Good Idea

She goes on to explain how, sadly, people wrecked God’s very good idea. The first people God created chose not to love him or one another. And we do the same. We are cruel to one another and fight with one another, and often it’s because others are different from us. In fact, we are incapable of loving God and others the way we were intended to. This is all very bad news for humanity.

God’s Very Good Plan to Save his Very Good Idea

We all need forgiveness for having completely ruined God’s very good idea. Thankfully, Newbell continues, God had a very good plan to save his very good idea. Jesus came and loved all kinds of people, and he taught us all how we were to love others as well. And by his death, his resurrection, and the sending of his Spirit, he made it possible for us to be forgiven, to love people different from us, and even to delight in his very good idea.

Why is this Book Important?

Children learn by example, don’t they? I’ve heard it said that children will play with anyone until a parent tells them not to. I would add that children will pray with anyone until a parent shows them otherwise. For, even though the context in Europe is different from that of the U.S., there’s a reason Martin Luther King Jr. described 11 AM as the most segregated hour in America. Few would argue with the claim that work remains to be done in building unity within the body of Christ. That is why the message of this book is as relevant as ever.

Who is this Book for?

This book is a precious aid to parents who want to help their children understand the beauty of Christ’s Bride comprised of the redeemed from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Stunningly illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, it includes images of young and old of various ethnicities, as well as interracial couples, biracial children, kids in wheelchairs, big burly tattooed men, and people in traditional attire. This book is also a helpful resource to parents whose children have been hurt or excluded because they’re different, and who need to grasp their identity and status as image-bearers. Regardless of our cultural background, this book will help our children discover their place in God’s global kaleidoscope. 

God’s Delightfully Different Family

Trillia Newbell’s (and my) hope is that “God’s Very Good Idea: A True Story about God’s Delightfully Different Family” will spark conversations on diversity that will help children get excited about loving their delightfully different family, the Church. My prayer is that it will do the same for moms and dads.