Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, inspired by a hurtful event experienced by one of my grandchildren, is a God-honoring, biblical, and joyously affirming rhyming picture book that celebrates ALL God’s image-bearers!
After someone told my granddaughter that she couldn’t be related to her sisters because her skin was darker than their skin, I affirmed that God made all three of my beautiful granddaughters wonderfully, marvelously brown–each one the perfect hue of brown He designed and chose for them. Then, I told her that I would write her a book proclaiming this truth.
God created every human in the world and uses melanin, which is brown, to design the perfect shade of brown skin He has chosen for each of us–from the darkest ebony to the lightest ivory.
Though we are “precious in His sight,” God’s image-bearers are not “red and yellow, black and white” as the old song “Jesus Loves the Little Children” written by C. Herbert Woolston (1865-1927) proclaims. Race is a social construct created in the mid-17th century to build systems of oppression and flame the fires of hate and prejudice against people with darker shades of brown skin.
For generations in this fallen world, sin has caused people to weaponize race in efforts to justify the enslavement of Africans, to legalize segregation between Black and White people, to taint generations with fear-driven ignorance passed down through ideologies that bred racism and colorism.
But God created diversity of ethnicity and culture intentionally.
God commands His people to love Him with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds–to love Him wholeheartedly–and to love our beautifully diverse neighbors as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31).
God commands us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all the beautifully diverse people from all nations, people He created in His image and loves (Matthew 28:18-20).
God reminds us that we are all humans made in love by the one whose very essence is love.
“All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:15-16)
“From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him–though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist.” Acts 17:26-28 (NLT)
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In Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, a joyful adventure and a celebration of ALL God’s image-bearers, a young boy with an invisible illness (like me) with his service dog (inspired by my service dog Callie) join his multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-generational family and friends to find and celebrate all the spectacular God-designed shades of brown—from the darkest ebony to the lightest ivory.
Everywhere that I go
I’m searching to see
something wonderfully, marvelously
brown—just like me!
Brown like new school desks. Corkboards covered with tacks.
Brown like paper-sack lunches with lip-smacking snacks.
Brown like freckles and moles and birthmarks on faces.
Brown like teachers with maps for exploring new places.
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God used brown everywhere in His creation, from the giant California redwoods to the Grand Canyon walls, from “grizzly bear cubs wrestling, rolling, and romping” to “moose with long legs” and “mukluks stomp-stomping.”
Illustrated by Pura Belpré Honor Award artist Sara Palacios, Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown takes kids on a tour of the U.S. to seek and find all the beautiful hues of brown that God used in creation, highlighting the spectacular shades He chose to use for the skin of His ethnically diverse image-bearers.
Through the rhythmic text and repeated refrain, all children will be encouraged to love the God-given hue of their brown skin and the God-given hues of brown He used to design everyone else’s beautifully brown skin–from the darkest to the lightest shade God made.
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD your FREE Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown Genesis 1:31 Full Color Poster!
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CLICK HERE to read a few pages of Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown!
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Thanks for partnering with me in ministry. I can do nothing without God or your ongoing prayers and support!
BULK ORDERS AVAILABLE, TOO!
If you are planning an event through a church, retailer, or a ministry, you can order Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown in bulk, often with special pricing incentives.
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I thank God for your partnership in ministry and am praying for you as we spread God’s truth and love to the ends of the earth together!
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