FAITH NEWS SERVICE – According to Harvard Medical School, “Gratitude helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals–whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.”

Ann Voskamps’s 2011 book about gratitude to God, One Thousand Gifts, spent sixty weeks on the New York Times Bestseller’s List, resonating with people around the world. Helping young children appreciate nature as God’s creation therefore also helps them connect with God as the good creator who loves them and gives good gifts.

In the picture book Thankful Kayden, Kordel McInnis taps into young children’s love of nature to show them the connection between creation and God in Jesus. With simple, accessible language and imagery, his main character, Kayden, speaks directly to the child audience to invite them on a mountain hike where they will encounter nature’s beauties and bounty.

The wonder of trees, animals, rivers, and waterfalls combines with the simple pleasures of picnics and playtime to depict the world of the young child. At each step Kayden stops to thank Jesus “through [whom] all things were made” (John 1:3).

Kids will relate to Kayden and to the comic adventures of his dog Dax as they learn to connect what their senses perceive with Jesus’s love for them.

McInnis said in writing Thankful Kayden, “I wanted to give kids another resource for knowing who Jesus is and some of the beautiful things that he has given us to experience on this earth.”

As children respond to Kayden’s invitations to sing along with the birds or to roar like a waterfall, they will be prepared to pray along with him at the end of the day, thanking Jesus for family, food, and a wonderful world. Adults and children alike will enjoy bedtime snuggles with Thankful Kayden.