It’s a fairly simple craft. All you need is a stick of some sort (we used old paint sticks) and some leftover ribbons (I save them from everything!). I glued, stapled and tied them to the end of the stick. The other end was held tightly by my kids. And suddenly they were not so simple anymore. They were beautiful birds of paradise dancing and twirling before the Lord.

I know it sounds dramatic. But we were in fact imitating Birds of Paradise! I just got a spectacular book for review called, Creation Inspirations by Cheryl Pickett. It’s basically a devotional book with each chapter focusing on a different animal. The chapter begins with some basic animal info–what they eat, where they live and what they look like.

But the next section is the cool part. It’s called “A New View” and is a devotional related to the animal. I read through several (no, not all, but several!) and was impressed by the creativity of the connections to God. (I read the panda and hippo chapter first and thought, “Wow. I should do this devotional for myself!”)

Each chapter ends with an activity, snack or craft that relates to the animal, the scripture or the devotional. After a quick read through of the book, I was excited to share it with Lydia and Asa!

We chose the Bird of Paradise chapter and loved it! Birds of Paradise are GORGEOUS birds found mainly in Papua New Guinea. These birds are amazing creations–they have long feathers and a myriad of colors. But the most fun part is that the males DANCE to show off to the female birds. Really. Dance.

The devotional section about Birds of Paradise gave a great description of the real and ultimate paradise–heaven. It ended with an encouragement to remember that whoever believes in God will be in paradise with Him forever…based on Luke 23:42-43, “Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’” Lydia and I got to have a great conversation about Heaven and the thief on the cross (to whom Jesus said this verse.).

Then it was time to make our ribbon sticks. And you can see from the pictures that the kids loved it. After reading the chapter, looking up Birds of Paradise on National Geographic and even listening to their calls online, making their own ribbon sticks to mimic the Birds of Paradise beautiful plumes, my kids were ready to spread their proverbial wings! Per the instructions in the book, I turned on a CD (Seeds of Praise) and the kids danced and raised their hands and ribbons to God for the entire length of the CD.

I am absolutely impressed with this book. I love the whole idea–taking an animal and making a God-connection out of it. That’s really what I try to do with my kids all the time—take a normal every day item or event and teach them about God. Please check out Cheryl Pickett’s Creation Inspiration blog/website and take a minute to order Creation Inspirations.

This book would work for kids of all ages–your older kids will enjoy some of the activities that involve writing, cooking and more. But everyone will enjoy the teaching, the activities and the encouragement from God’s Word! They will in fact, be INSPIRED by God’s great CREATION!

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I have been trying to choose books about love for my daughter, Juliet, and I to read together each night. I want her to know how deeply and unconditionally I love her and also how God’s love for her far surpasses my own great love.

As I looked at our shelves the other night, The Runaway Bunnyby Margaret Wise Brown jumped out at me. “That’s perfect!” I thought to myself. We’ve read this book a million times before, but we’ve never had a conversation about how God loves us as unwaveringly and as fiercely as the mother bunny loves her little bunny.

If you’ve never read the book, it begins like this:

“Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.” “If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.” If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

The story continues in this way with the little bunny coming up with another and yet another thing to turn into and his mother responding with how she will chase after him and find him NO MATTER WHAT. It’s a beautiful story of unconditional love.

As I thought about the picture of love presented in this book, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the love stories of the Bible such as the book of Hosea, the story of the prodigal son, and the greatest love story of all: Jesus coming to earth and becoming human just because He loved us so much. No matter how far we ran from him, and no matter what we became, He was willing to leave heaven behind and give up His life because we are His children and He loves us.

I thought to myself, “This is going to be great! We’re going to read a great book together AND have a meaningful spiritual conversation!”

It didn’t exactly turn out that way. Here’s what happened:

As we began reading the story together, Juliet asked me, “Mommy, why is that bunny running away? and I said, “Why do you think he is running away?” and she said, “To join the circus!” (Towards the end of the book, the bunny tells his mother he will join the circus.)

I took this moment to tell her that I was like the mother bunny and that if she ever ran away, I would always go after her because she was my little bunny. She just sort of nodded and then we continued reading.

A few pages later, Juliet suddenly jumped up, and exclaimed, “I’m the little bunny!” and ran away. I put the book down and proceeded to chase her down the hall and tackle her in my room.

I again reminded her that I would always catch her because she was my little bunny. She smiled, giggled, and then announced, “I’m a butterfly, I’m going to fly away from you!” and ran down the hall. I responded with, “I’m a net and I will catch you!”

We played this spontaneous little game over and over again—she was a little bird; I was a nest. She was a lady bug; I was a little girl with a bug-catcher. She was a roley poley, and I was a pile of dirt. Again and again, she ran away from me, and again and again I caught her.

Then we sat down, finished reading the book, and got ready for bed. As I tucked her in, I said, “God is like the mother bunny, too. No matter what you do, no matter how far you run away from Him, He will always come after you because you are His little bunny and He loves you.”

And she said, “Hey. You have hair in your nose.”

So maybe we didn’t get the meaningful spiritual conversation in, (we did have a discussion about the benefits and purposes of nose hair) but we did make some memories and invented a fun, new game! Even though she wasn’t really ready to talk about God’s love for her, I think the seed was planted.

And like that mother bunny, I’ll keep chasing her down and telling her tirelessly about God’s love, over and over again. And the best part is, I don’t have to do it on my own. He won’t stop His pursuit of her either.

Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books.

I found the best Thanksgiving book at the library this year! It’s called Over the River and Thro’ the Woods. There are many different versions of this book but NONE are as adorable as this one illustrated by Normand Chartier.

Does this title sound familiar? That’s because you probably sing it every CHRISTMAS! But guess what? It’s really a Thanksgiving poem!

Once I read it, I knew I had to own it. I was tempted to “accidentally” forget to return the book to the library. But instead, I got it from one of Amazon’s partner sellers for $3. It’s in our bookstore now! Is it not super adorable?!

“I will praise God’s name by singing to him. I will bring him glory by giving him thanks.” Psalm 69:30 NIrV