About the Book
Book: What Color is God’s Love?
Author: Xochitl Dixon
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Release date: March 19, 2024
All the colors displayed in this world that God made—
every glorious, fabulous, beautiful shade—
show how good God is and will always be.
But what is the color of love? Come and see!
In What Color is God’s Love?, a little girl and her service dog join their diverse friends through a
whirlwind of adventures. As they celebrate the spectacular spectrum of colors God designed,
each color invites readers to explore their God-given emotions and becomes a reminder of God’s
unchanging character. While encouraging children to acknowledge God’s constant presence with every turn of the page, What Color is God’s Love? also empowers children, with and without disabilities, to play, work, and serve God together, by simply letting the colors of His love shine through them. With each turn of the page, the focus shifts to a specific color—orange, yellow, blue, green, pink, black, white, gray, brown, red, purple. Each lyrical rhyme invites readers to engage with God through empowering and faith-building truth-statements that incite worship and encourage a lifestyle of loving God and neighbors.
About the Author
Xochitl (So-Cheel) Dixon, contributing writer for Our Daily Bread and God Hears Her, is the author of Waiting for God: Trusting Daily in God’s Plan and Pace. She loves Jesus and people, as she crosses cultural, generational, and international lines with encouraging and sound biblical teaching. Celebrating diversity and inclusion, she advocates for disability awareness with her beautifully diverse family and her service dog, Callie. Her first children’s picture book, Different Like Me, now available in Spanish, is a 2021 ECPA Christian Book Award Children’s Book Finalist. In March 2024, Xochitl’s second picture book, What Color is God’s Love?, is releasing with WaterBrook.
Author Interview with Xochitl
Q: What was the inspiration behind this children’s book?
Xochitl: In 2018, my husband got a job offer, so we followed God from California to Wisconsin. He was working long hours. I can’t drive because I’m disabled. So, I was feeling alone, discouraged, and frustrated. He had surprised me with Callie, the rescue pup turned service dog who is featured as the service dog in all my children’s picture books.
Callie was licking my tears away one day when I was sitting on my recliner. I looked out the window and realized the rain had stopped. A white heron had landed in the lush green foliage on the creek bank next to our front yard. The sunlight pierced through the dark gray clouds and shone on that white bird. As he took flight, I broke down and started praising God. I was filled with so much hope. I started writing a free verse poem about the colorful world God created. The Holy Spirit took me to Psalm 33 then to Psalm 19. Then to other Bible verses as I continued worshipping Him.
When I took Callie for a walk that day, I started to see things differently and praised God for the colorful world He created, for giving me a safe place to process my big emotions, and for remaining trustworthy because I couldn’t count on Him to remain true to His Word and His character. I met Callie’s Grandma Jan on one of those walks. We didn’t agree on everything, but we agreed to love Jesus and Callie. She drove us to my doctor appointments and became one of our biggest supporters at book events. God’s love began to flow in and through me, as I began to connect with more people in Wisconsin.
Q: How long did it take you to write this children’s book?
Xochitl: I wrote the original free verse poem in 2018, when I first followed God from California to Wisconsin. I revised it a few times, each time feeling closer to God and each time knowing God was changing something in me, healing something in me. God brought us back to California in September 2020. I signed the contract with WaterBrook in November 2021.
God transformed me and the manuscript, which became rhyming couplets. The active revising process took a few months of prayer and Bible study. Every children’s book I write is based on Bookend Bible verses, two Bible verses that are the foundation of the message I’m sharing. But What Color is God’s Love? also had a Bible verse that I used for every color, every two-page spread. Those Bible verses were used to create the Breath Prayer Cards and the devotions for the YouVersion 7-Day Reading Plan. I’ll be creating a devotional for the whole book and other free activity sheets and resources to offer as free downloads on the What Color is God’s Love? page on my website, along with the free Breath Prayer Cards which are available now.
Q: What was the most surprising thing you discovered while researching and writing this children’s book?
Xochitl: People have called me a poet, but I don’t feel confident enough to call myself a poet. I write children’s books. I write in rhyme. I know what I like to hear when I read out loud. I work hard and do what I do well, by God’s grace. I can do nothing without God or His people! But I don’t really know all the rules about poetry, so I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a poet.
Q: Who is an author you would recommend to anyone and everyone?
Xochitl: The God-breathed words of Scripture. The Bible! Genesis through Revelation. The Bible is a life-transforming read that will never get old if you ask God to reveal Himself as you read. I have read through the Bible yearly since 2005, only missing a few years. I recommend people try to read through the Bible in a year, if not yearly, at least once every other year or once every three years, to gain familiarity of God’s whole story. This shouldn’t take the place of deeper Bible study. But getting to know God’s whole story, changes everything! I learn something new every year! I’m changed every time I come before God and read His word, when I remember it’s not just a book. The Bible is living and active, the God-breathed words of Scripture, an opportunity to commune with God. The Bible is the only book I would recommend to anyone and everyone! Our Daily Bread Ministries has an easy Bible reading plan you can follow with the daily devotions they send via email, on their app, or the old school.
Q: Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
Xochitl: You can connect with me at www.xedixon.com
More from Xochitl
The Heart Behind My Story
By Xochitl Dixon
Like most of my writing, What Color is God’s Love? began as an overflow of worship while I prayed and praised God. In 2018, my husband and I had followed God from California to Wisconsin. I’m disabled and can’t drive, so his long hours at work left me feeling isolated while I searched for a new church and new doctors. As the weather became more extreme, I grew more discouraged, frustrated, and resentful. I struggled as I wrote my first 31-day devotional for Our Daily Bread, Waiting for God: Trusting Daily in God’s Plan and Pace. I was praying for people, studying and teaching the Bible every day. So, I couldn’t figure out why I felt so out of touch with God.
When my new puppy, Callie, licked my tears away, I looked out the window and noticed the rain had finally stopped. Rays of sunlight pierced through the dark gray clouds, shining on a white heron that had landed in the greed foliage on the creek’s bank next to our front yard. I wept tears of grateful praise. I wrote the first draft of a free verse poem celebrating God’s loving care for the details in Creation and in the lives of His people.
As I prayed, I realized I had been spending time talking to people about God. However, as the physical, emotional, and mental effects of our transition overwhelmed me, I had stopped spending quality time with God. As I watched the white heron take flight, God led me to Psalm 33:6-9, which became the first What Color is God’s Love? Bookend Bible verse.
I released Waiting for God in 2019 and my first picture book, Different Like Me, in 2020. But God had me tuck that free verse poem away as He dramatically transformed me and the original manuscript over the next few years. I wanted to give young image-bearers what I never had growing up: a safe place to process emotions . . . in God’s presence. I also wanted God’s beautifully diverse image-bearers, people with and without disabilities, to see each color as a reminder of His unchanging character, unlimited power, and unwavering grace, as they experienced His unconditional love flowing for them, in them, and through them.
After I signed the contract in November 2021, God began leading me to the right Bible verses to build the messages for each color I shared. Over time, I created the Breath Prayer Cards as a free download on my website, the YouVersion reading plan, and the devotional for the rest of the colors not shared in the reading plan.
I wanted each color to be a reminder of God’s unchanging character, unlimited power, and unwavering grace as we experience His unconditional love flowing for, in, and through us. More importantly, I began praying that everyone who read What Color is God’s Love? would be inspired to open their Bibles and spend more time with God, including me.
Blog Stops
Lots of Helpers, April 24
Texas Book-aholic, April 25
Vicky Sluiter, April 26 (Author Interview)
BookZone Reviews , April 27
By The Book, April 28 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, April 28
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 29
Splashes of Joy, April 30 (Author Interview)
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, May 1
Beauty in the Binding, May 2 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, May 3
Sylvan Musings, May 4 (Author Interview)
Guild Master, May 4
Artistic Nobody, May 5
Blossoms and Blessings, May 6 (Author Interview)
Library Lady’s Kid Lit, May 7
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Xochitl is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card, a copy of Different Like Me, and What Color is God’s Love?!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
Link for giveaway: https://promosimple.com/ps/2b144/what-color-is-god-s-love-celebration-tour-giveaway
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