He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Kadir Nelson
Dial Books, 2005

Today I’m serving myself a nice, big helping of humble pie because He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands is exactly the kind of book that I tell myself I don’t like. But I love it.

It’s one of the books that keeps popping up in my Amazon browsing as something the Amazon People think I might like. However, because books of song lyrics is one of my literary pet peeves, I never took much notice of it. But it kept popping up. And popping up again. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I relented and requested it from our library, and I’m so glad that I did.

The first thing you’ll notice about this book is the splendid illustrations. Kadir Nelson is an incredibly talented artist, and his artwork in this book (of everything from family life to nature scenes to outer space) will make you want to turns the pages slowly so you can soak it all in. It’s a book you’ll want to pick up again and again just for the visual experience.

Pretty pictures, though, aren’t enough to warrant inclusion in Aslan’s Library! At first blush, the words of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” aren’t anything particularly noteworthy. Every time I pick up the book, though, I’ve become more convinced that the words of this book are well worth meditating on and discussing with our children.

He’s got the whole world in his hands. He’s got the sun and the rain in his hands. He’s got you and he’s got me in his hands. He’s got everybody everywhere in his hands. It makes me want to cry with joy, actually. The Lord, the Creator of the universe, cares for us. Everything that happens, whether in nature or a human heart or body, matters to him. He is not far off; he is the God who has drawn near to us and redeemed us by Jesus’ blood. We live in a broken and fallen world where many evil and heart-wrenching things happen, but we have a good and loving Father in the midst of it all. He knows us and loves us. And those are all things we should be singing and reading about.

PS The Lord is risen! I hope you all had fantastic Easter celebrations yesterday… just don’t forget that celebrating the Resurrection should carry on through this whole week – and beyond!