All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings Children’s Edition

I’ve been a fan of the original edition of All Creation Waits for a few years now. In fact, I like it so much that I used it as part of the parent/caregiver book club for our Advent Holy Moments this year. Imagine my excitement when I found out that the author and publisher teamed up to release an edition just for children! As I waited for it to arrive from the publisher, I actually daydreamed about what it could be like. When I opened the package, several of my children were around me and heard my audible gasp and were concerned that another cricket had gotten in with the mail. “No, no, loveys”, I said. “It’s this book. It’s gorgeous.” At which we all abandoned what we were doing, plopped down on our favorite couch, and settled in for a good read together.

All Creation Waits, Children’s Edition is organized similarly to the original edition. Twenty four different animals are featured, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas. Each animal has its own two page spread, featuring gorgeous color illustrations and text that describes the animal’s habits of waiting and resting. There is plenty of space around the text and the illustrations softly and accurately depict the animal’s life. Each two page spread closes the same way; The dark is not an end. It’s a door. It’s the way a new beginning comes. This simple repetition, paired with the text about waiting, helps drive home why we celebrate the season of Advent. It’s not about anticipating presents and decorating everything possible; it’s about waiting for the new beginning that comes in the birth of the infant Jesus.

This book holds many opportunities for your ministry. If you use our parent/caregiver bookclub from Holy Moments, it would be quite natural to use this children’s edition as the spine of your elementary and middle grades faith formation time. You could set up three centers in your classroom; one where the texts are shared with the children, one where the children create their own two page spread of art that depicts what they take away from the lesson of waiting, and another center where the children assemble pinecone bird feeders and pet blanket packs for animal shelters as a response to creation waiting for us to help care for them. This book would make a wonderful Advent gift for families; no need for tchotchkes from an online retailer that will just wind up broken. This book provides for conversation about who we are and why we observe Advent better than any ‘color your own Christmas ornament’. Pair it with a handful of Zoom/Google Meet gatherings midweek where everyone gathers to follow an online drawing tutorial of an animal from the book, and you’ve got a dynamic gift plus multigenerational ministry offering. I would also purchase a copy just for the prayground and take it apart. I would laminate the pages and put a few out in the prayground, along with dry erase markers or watercolor for the wee ones to color/paint as they participate in worship. It could also be used as the spine for children’s moments in worship. This sweet volume is quite versatile and would provide lots of material for your ministries!