A Review of God’s Very Good Idea
"They would all be like mirrors, reflecting what God is like. Because God is full of love, they would be full of love too."
Let me read my review of God’s Very Good Idea to you! Click the “play button” above!
God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell is part of a series called Tales That Tell the Truth from the Good Book publishers. What I love about this book is that God’s design, His thought, His plan is central to why people all over the world look different. His plan had infinite variety, unpredictability (to humans), distinct and express differences from all the rest of creation, yet somehow the same with each other.
“God’s idea was to make PEOPLE…
lots of people… lots of different people…
who would all enjoy loving him and all enjoy loving each other.
They would all be made in his image.
They would all be like mirrors, reflecting what God is like.
Because God is full of love, they would be full of love too.”
This was His first idea: people. Reflections of Himself.
He made all of creation and put them in it; a man and a woman. But it became ruined because the people “chose not to love God,” and then they stopped loving each other.
The illustrations go from bright, beautiful, happy, creative… to dark, sad, even raining. If you look closely at the picture , there is a girl being ridiculed for tripping in the jumping rope, a man yelling at his dog, a little girl stuck in the middle of an argument between adult men, and a girl crying with a broken heart with a boy on his phone (may be he’s texting a different girl?) Lots of sad things.
But God wasn’t done working on His plan. “He came to earth as a person—JESUS.”
But the people did love Him either and the crucified Him. “But this was part of God’s plan.” Because of Jesus’s death, He was able to take our sins and now He forgives His people for their sins. He rose again and gave us His Spirit to help us enjoy loving Him and loving each other.
The illustration is so sweet. May be it’s supposed to be at church, but they are sharing coffee and cookies, some are praying, some are laughing, there’s a girl in a wheelchair, and man with a prosthetic leg, every age and skin tone, there’s a boy experiencing sorrow and two people are comforting him. It just looks like a place of love!
The group of believers are called a family, God’s family. Made for loving Him and loving each other.
.
Some of the themes that I love about this book is that, because He is infinitely creative, in order to reflect God’s skill in design, it’s only natural that everyone looks different. I love the honest look at what happened in the Garden of Eden. Truly, our sin problem is choosing to not love God, and that because of that, we cannot know how to properly love each other. We needed God to come as Jesus to make a way to forgive us and that was His plan all along. I love how it presents the Gospel so clearly in a very simple and concise way. I appreciate that the text specifically says we need to be forgiven through Jesus. “Jesus welcomes anyone who asks him to forgive them. And when he welcomes someone, he welcomes them into his family forever.” Being a part of the church family now is just the beginning of one day when God will finish His good idea and we’ll all enjoy loving Him and praising Him together.
The illustrations are so sweet, detailed and really when you look close, they add to the story without the need for extra words.
Have you ready any books from this series yet?
