God's Very Good Idea

I appreciate the importance and beauty of diversity, and how the fall of man has impacted our true calling to love God and each other, no matter how we look. One thing that bothered me is that a few times, “than” is used in place of “from,” making the sentences comparative rather than differentiating differences. The big thing that didn’t fit for our family is that the Bible says that God isn’t pleased with our sin, but Jesus came to redeem us when we were yet sinners, and He sees us in His righteousness. There is a line in the book that says that because of our sin, God isn’t pleased with us. It is insinuated in the book that once we ask for Jesus’ forgiveness, we can live heaven on earth with our church family, which includes anyone else who asks Jesus’ forgiveness, so matter what they look like, but they never quite answer the question, “Is God pleased with me?”. (My husband was also a little bugged that part of the worship teams seems to be sleeping in the church lobby after a service.)

If you're a certain genre of Christian, you might like this book. It starts out nicely, but then it gets into an utter depravity worldview that's totally at odds with Orthodox Christianity. It's so offensive I might throw it away instead of returning it.

Fantastic book! Excellent text, beautiful pictures. I cannot recommend this book highly enough."God carried on creating people. All of them were made in his image. And all of them were different too. Some were men, and some were women. Some liked reading, and some liked riding bikes. Some had darker skin, and some had lighter skin. Some had curly hair, and some had straight hair.""We all live in God's world. We are all different, but we are also all the same. Everyone you see is different than you, and the same as you. They might look different or speak different or play different. But they are all made in God's image, and so they are all valuable.""This is God's very good idea: lots of different people enjoying loving him and loving each other."

I have been avidly searching for books to introduce my two year old to the Gospel. Most of the materials I found were overly simplistic, cartoonish, or simply mistold Bible stories. Enter “God’s Very Good Idea!” This book simplified the Gospel story in a way that my child could understand without over simplifying! It covers the gospel story: God’s plan, man’s sin, God’s rescue, and His coming again! It’s all there without compromise!The illustrator and author did a marvelous job depicting God’s world as He envisioned: perfect relationship with Him and with one another. The children are happy and playing together and they are enjoying all that God has made in a park. Yet the next page shows the same picture after sin has entered the picture. Sadness, fighting, and stealing are all a few things that are show in this picture. These two contrasting pictures have inspired her to ask so many questions like “Why is she crying?,” “Why is that boy running away with the ball?,” etc. and it has given me the opportunity to talk about sin (an elusive, evading, and abstract concept) in a real, concrete way that makes sense for her age and development.The entirety of the book shows the intentional beauty of God’s design in making us all different yet all in His image as tremendously valuable and worthy because of Christ’s death on the cross! I know that as my daughter grows older she will grow into understanding with this theme as well.Lastly, and by far my favorite thing about this book, it introduced my daughter to Christ’s death on the cross. After reading this she began telling us that “Christ died on a cross.” I love that every time I read this book she is hearing of what Christ has done for us! Overall, this is a very well done book and holds the interest of my daughter now and will be a book she can grow into!

This book beautifully connects love of God and love of neighbor. We are made to love God, and therefore to love everyone made in His image. It shows how our different ethnicities and personalities let each of us reflect different facets of God's image. It shows how we distort that image with sin, and how God redeems that image in Christ.What an important thing to teach! This book has good theology, is clearly written and beautifully illustrated. Buy it for your kids!Adults who want to go deeper on this topic might consider "Bloodlines" by John Piper.

Super cute book, bought for my godson. Got it and didn’t mess with it till I gave it to them for Christmas. Within 24 hrs of getting the book and going to read it for the first time the pages started falling out. Looks like a bad binding job. Will definitely check the next one I order before I give it to someone.

First of all, the artwork in this story is so beautiful and I jump at the chance to buy any book illustrated by Catalina Echeverri. But this is also a great gospel-centered story about how God intended for us to love each other and embrace each other's differences but how sin keeps us from doing that. In times such as these I want to teach my children to be aware of, interested in, and celebrate other's cultures, skin colors, and differences and for them to know that's what God wants from them as well.

Buy it. Do yourself a huge favor and stinkin buy it. This should be in every home in the world. It's a beautiful depiction of God's beautiful design, how we ruined it, and how He redeemed us. It also celebrates diversity, which as a parent of a tri-racial child, is very important to me.

Whilst the book itself is lovely quality and illustration wise, I think the theology is completely wrong.Instilling fear and guilt in children.Shame :( I was really looking forward to adding this book to our collection. Some parts are really good but then others are just terrible.

Absolutely brilliant book. I was looking for books which would talk about the beauty of how God has created so many different cultures and people's. Read this with our 3 year and he found the animations very engaging and itnwas a good conversation starter. Absolutely love the presentation of the gospel and found it to be theologically sound. Would definitely recommend and will be buying another copy for a friend.

Good value

Lovely book for our 2 year old grandson

Brill book!