I confess, sometimes I’ll find a book that makes me blubber like a baby from beginning to end, and when I find a book like that, I know it’s a keeper. An example of this is “Before You Were Born,” a beautiful picture book that takes me back to my pregnancy with my daughter, who is my first-born, and all the hopes and dreams I had for her and how naïve I was to think that my life would not change all that much after I had children. I had no idea how much better my life would be.
We start the story with, “Before you were born, God wrote your days in a book.” (Psalms 139:13-16) Then the parents go on to talk about the baby’s arrival, and how they wrapped the child up in a white blanket and introduced it to the dawn. The gender is kept neutral, making the book wonderful to read to your son or daughter.
Then we learn how the parents would go to the pond and watch the ducks while waiting for the baby’s arrival, but when the baby came, their eyes were only on it, and the ducks flew overhead, quacking.
Before the baby was born, the parents would throw bread on the surface of the water and the shining fish would come up to eat it, but after the baby came, everyone was shining because they loved the baby so much.
Before the baby came, the great-grandmother made a cap for the baby, and when she rocked the child in her arms, “her blessing song was like a star, rising to the heavens.”
On and on the book goes, showing how happy the parents were before, but how having the baby took all of their joy and multiplied it, making it wondrous and special, and how very dear that baby is to them.
I think sometimes we can get caught up in the diapers and the bottle-making and the endlessly sleepless nights and lose sight of what beautiful gifts of God babies are. This book brought it home to me with lovely words, gentle illustrations, and a touch of God’s hand on every page. A marvelous book for a baby shower gift or to read to your children as you tuck them in.
(This book was published in 2002 by Eerdman’s Books and was illustrated by Linda Saport.)
Related Blogs:
Children’s Picture Books about Relationships with Parents
Froggy Books by Johnathan London