Who Sang the First Song is the title of my brand new children’s book.

The majority of the book loosely follows the creation story in Genesis by asking questions, which feels very appropriate for children, since they are always full of questions! Parents can start by letting their kids take their own guesses at who sang the first song. Was it the sun? The moon? The stars? The waves? As I was writing the book, it was so fun to hear my kids take their own guesses at this question. My four-year-old’s first guess was Dolly Parton!

I hope this book will spark conversations between adults and children not only about WHO made the earth, but HOW and WHY the earth was created. I think all of us want to know why we are here. We’re all looking for purpose and direction for our lives, and I hope this book will be a conversation starter about what we were created for. I hope there are conversations about how we can sing both with our voices but also with our lives. I am so grateful that we were created in the image of a VERY creative God, and I love the idea that adults and children would be talking about how we can create beauty and love with the gifts that we’ve been given.

Here are some questions for parents or adults to ask children that will hopefully spark wonderful conversation:
1. Who do you think sang the first song?
2. Who created the world?
3. How was the world created?
4. What does God say about us?
5. Why did God make the world?
6. Why did God make you?
7. What did God make the world and us to do?
8. How can we “sing” and share the beauty of God’s love with the way we live our lives?

I love how creation sings the song of God’s love for us, and I suppose I wanted to drop some breadcrumbs for kids and their parents to be able to trace the beauty of creation to the beauty of our Creator. That way, when they wake up and see the sun coloring the sky a grapefruit pink color, or when they hear the birds singing their songs throughout the day, or see the stars filling up the night sky like diamonds, they will be reminded that all the beauty is there to declare the love and the goodness of God. I’m hoping that when kids and parents admire creation, they will be reminded that they are a part of God’s beautiful creation too and that we too are image bearers of the love and goodness and beauty and creativity of our God.

I also hope this book will be a conversation starter. I hope kids and parents will enjoy talking about creation, our Creator, and all the ways that He designed us to create beauty and music and joy with our lives.