This Special Blessing for You. Eric and Meredith Schrotenboer. Illustrated by Denise Hughes. 2024. 32 pages. [Source: Library] [Picture book, children's book]
First sentence: Today is the day the world gets to see the beautiful person God made you to be. Wherever you go, it's God's love you're expressing, so God sends you out with this special blessing. May the Lord bless you with strength from above and fill you with power to give and to love. May God protect you all through the day. God's always close--that's where God will stay.
This picture book is a VERY loose adaptation of Numbers 6:22-27. It is absolutely a beautiful blessing from Scripture. It is grounded in a time and place, and, like many other blessings found in Scripture, it isn't unconditional. [This is absolutely not the position taken by the authors. They don't really address the context of these verses at all. That isn't their aim or mission.]
The picture book is inspired by this bit of Scripture. It is a soft, warm, fuzzy, comfy, cozy. It is reassuring and self-affirming. It sometimes reads vaguely, intentionally unoffensive. It is written in rhyme.
I have read this one twice now. Each stanza [or spread] hits differently when I read or reread it. I think each stanza could lead to some substantive discussion. But I'm not sure that in actuality that is how the book will be used. And there isn't really a "wrong" way to read this one with little ones.
It is inspired by Numbers 6:22-27. These verses are from the Old Testament. The gospel isn't necessarily obvious and straightforward in this passage. What this book is missing--and this is my personal opinion--is Jesus Christ and the gospel. Again, it isn't that the authors removed the gospel or twisted the gospel. They just didn't add in the gospel. There were phrases that just hit slightly off--again my own personal opinion.
"So God has a plan--it's you that God sends to share with the world that God's love never ends. So be kind to others, your sister and brother, to show what God's like as we love one another. May your life be "good news" to all those that you meet--your family and neighbors and friends down the street."
There are at least two ways to read the book. One way is to give the authors the full benefit of the doubt, to assume that they were not implying anything weird theologically or equating God's expression of love in Jesus Christ with our expression of love as we share tacos with everyone. The second way is to have doubt, to begin to question every statement to see how it lines up with Scripture.
It is a very loose adaptation. You can't pair up stanzas with specific lines or phrases from Scripture. And the picture book goes above and beyond the words and their meanings. It expands the theology from Numbers 6:22-27. Part of me is like--show your work. Where in Scripture does it teach this, show that, which verses led you to make this statement as fact. Many of the statements--surface level at least--sound true, feel true. But just because something sounds nice, sounds true-ish doesn't necessarily make it theologically sound.
The note to parents reads,
The Hebrew understanding of "blessing" is that it is a "divine filling." When the priests raised their hands and spoke these words, God's Spirit flowed through the priests on to the people. With this blessing, God's people were filled with power to live out who God called them to be in the world. The same is true today. God sends us out into the world so we can show everyone what God is like. We get to carry God's name with us wherever we go. Use this book as a resource to speak God's blessing over the children in your life. With this blessing, you will equip them with God's power to live out who God is calling them to be and what God is calling them to do as they go through their day.
The note just feels theologically iffy, off, strange. One of the authors is a certified Enneagram coach and facilitator.
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