Book Review: I Can't Believe My Eyes
Silly Questions
If you’re a parent, you know what it’s like to be interrupted by your children. Whether you’re chatting with your spouse, cooking dinner, or cutting the grass, chances are you’ve experienced that tap on your shoulder that slams the brakes on whatever you were working on. It’s not their fault. Kids are inquisitive by nature, and are usually certain that the hyper-specific bit of information they’re asking you about is vital to the next few moments of their life. “Did you ever break a bone? What would happen if sharks could fly? What’s for dinner?”
While these interruptions are often silly, occasionally they end up being game changing moments of opportunity and growth. That’s exactly where Joshua Cooley starts his latest kids book, I Can’t Believe My Eyes.
Embracing Opportunity
“You’ve probably experienced something similar somewhere in your parenting journey. Faced with blowing your kid off so you can get back to whatever you’re in the middle of, or sacrificing your work, entertainment, or quiet time to press in with them.”
It’s a blustery fall day, and a dad is outside raking leaves while his young son jumps into the piles he’s gathered. He’s clearly trying to get these leaves off his to-do list, but his son hits him with a doozy of a question—”Dad, is God real?” Yeesh. The father has a decision to make. Does he give a quick, pat answer and keep hustling to get the yard clean, or does he embrace an opportunity to engage with his boy and unpack some deep truth?
It’s a real moment. You’ve probably experienced something similar somewhere in your parenting journey. Faced with blowing your kid off so you can get back to whatever you’re in the middle of, or sacrificing your work, entertainment, or quiet time to press in with them. Joshua is reminding parents that we’re called to come alongside our kids and embrace these opportunities to share our faith and wisdom. The dad puts down his rake, grabs a kite, and heads to the park with his boy.
The next several pages depict the father teaching his son how to fly a kite by running, letting out some line, and finally letting go so that the wind can catch it and carry it into the sky. It’s a children’s book, so of course so there are a few bumps along the way to successfully launching his kite. Once the kite is ripping through the sky, the father reengages with the question that brought them to the park.
Certainty Out of Uncertainty
You can’t see the wind, but you can tell it’s there because of everything happening around you. The kite is flying, the leaves are blown out of the pile, and the birds are riding the currents. Our eyes can’t see the wind itself, but we can be certain it’s there. His father reminds him that all he was to do is look.
So then, back to the son’s question, is God real? The boy’s father points out that we can be certain God is real with a simple command—”Look!” We can look around at the beauty we see all around us at a fall day in the park, and know that God spoke it into being. Nothing showed up there by accident. We can look at God’s greatest creation, humanity, and rejoice that we’re made in his image! They look around the park and see folks living as image bearers as they talk to one another, create art and culinary delights, love one another on a walk, and enjoy delicious treats.
The dad reminds his son that he can also look at God’s own word, the Bible, to know that he’s real. It holds God’s rules, his miracles, stories of his heroes, and the story of his love for his people through his son Jesus. Most importantly, the Bible shows us the Son offering his own life on the cross so that we might have our sins forgiven. While we weren’t there to see it happen, we can trust God’s word that invites us to put our trust in Jesus and follow him.
Bringing It Home
Great summary Trey, but are you telling me to buy this book or not? Well, there’s a lot to love about I Can’t Believe My Eyes. First, maybe it’s just a personal indictment of my own selfishness that keeps me from going full Bandit Heeler whenever my kids ask a question or invite me to play, but I LOVED the picture of a dad saying no to work and yes to his son. It was a great reminder of the power a “yes” can have in the lives of our kids. He could’ve blown him off and simply banged out the raking (and I wouldn’t have blamed him!), but he loved his son enough to set his task to the side to invest in something that’ll last longer than his yard. Am I analyzing a kids book like an episode of prestige television? Perhaps, but it seemed like a conscious choice Cooley made that’s worth reflecting on.
Next, this book is written to answer a big question in a way that both gives parents some guardrails, but also makes it simple enough for young kids to wrap their heads around. You’ve probably seen or read this comparison of God to the wind at some point, and obviously it’s not a perfect analogy (nothing is!). But, unless you’re a very specific type of person, you’re probably not handing your first grader a theological dictionary when they ask big questions about God. The book is encouraging parents to engage in ways that spur on conversation and draw their eye toward God’s beauty in the world around them. You don’t need a Bible degree to talk to your kids about who God is, and what your faith is about.
I know you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, and all that, but Hannah Green did a great job illustrating here. Her swooshing lines, and fall color palette had me reaching for a cardigan and a warm latte (don’t judge me, black coffee is for the birds!). Each page looks like a sweeping water color painting, and a couple were so big they warranted some larger fold-out illustrations. Of course the content is what’s most important here, but having a book that your kids can enjoy looking at goes a long way to getting them to read it.
I Can’t Believe My Eyes is easy to recommend! It does a great job of both encouraging parents to engage with their kids on big and small questions of the faith through unplanned moments in life. Not only that, it specifically helps kids think through one of the most challenging questions they face—is God real? While this book probably works best at home with your own kids, I could see it being in your read-aloud rotation in a Sunday School classroom as well. No matter where you’re reading, it’ll be a great addition to your shelf. You can snag your copy directly from the publisher here.