Linne, Shai. God Made Me AND You: Celebrating God’s Design for Ethnic Diversity. New Growth Press, Greensboro, NC. 2018. 32 pages.
How should we think about race and ethnicity? More importantly, what does the Bible say about these matters? We live in a time of cultural tension, and our churches need to speak up where there is silence against the sin of racism and we need to bring love and unity instead of contention. More than all of this, we need to have these tough conversations with our children. How can we even begin doing this? Thanks to Shai Linne’s new children’s book, God Made Me AND You: Celebrating God’s Design for Ethnic Diversity, we have an answer.
Creative Teaching on Celebrating Ethnic Diversity
In this beautifully illustrated book (illustrations by Trish Mahoney), Shai Linne uses his poetic style as a hip-hop artist to creatively teach kids through rhyme God’s design for ethnic diversity. Using the story of an elementary classroom incident, God Made Me AND You takes children and their parents through the story of the Bible to show God’s beautiful and good design in His diverse creation. The book uses the classroom incident between students as an opportunity to highlight Acts 17. From there, the book highlights God unity and diversity in the world He has made, displaying and celebrating the beauty of ethnic diversity. The book also dives into the sin of racism and how the only solution to this problem is found in the gospel as Jesus died for the sins of mankind and no type of person is left out. The ethnic diversity of the church finds its unity in Jesus Christ. Simply put, God Made Me AND You teaches ethnic diversity is something the Bible calls for us to celebrate as God saves a people from all ethnicities for Himself.
A Gift of Grace for Understanding Race (for Kids)
Shai faithfully portrays the beautiful display of God’s creation, the problem of man’s sin of racism, and the solution provided by the gospel of Jesus Christ. He even opens the book with a letter to the parent or caregiver and closes it with an article on “Six Ways to Help Your Children Appreciate God’s Design for Ethnic Diversity” to equip the parent as the wage their way through this complex conversation. In a time where tensions are high on tough topics like ethnicity and racism, this book teaches faithfully the biblical truth of God’s design for ethnic diversity in an engaging manner for kids. The book is ideal for elementary school-aged children but parents themselves will benefit from such a resource too. One line of the story sums the book well, “What some call ethnicity and others call race, We should celebrate as a gift of God’s grace.” This book is a gift of God’s grace to those who want to teach their children what the Bible says about race. Shai gives parents guidance on how to educate children on ethnicity through a biblical lens. If you are a parent of an elementary-aged child and want them to know the beautiful biblical truth of God’s design for ethnic diversity, then get this book!
I received this book from New Growth Press in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own and are my honest review of the book.
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