Dear Mama God is the award-winning children’s picture book with an expansive, simple, wonder-filled prayer addressed to God as a Mother.
Dear Mama God wins “The Best Spiritual Books of 2023” Award from Spirituality & Practice.
Written by Daneen Akers (Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints), and illustrated by award-winning artist Gillian Gamble, children and adults alike will be drawn into a diverse, imaginative, and luminous world full of color, possibility, and hope.
Dear Mama God…
With those simple and yet revolutionary words comes a wondrous child’s prayer addressed to the Divine in feminine form.
Warm, comforting, and full of gratitude, these innocent and earnest words of thanks help us see anew through the eyes of a child how we can approach God as Mother and as She.
Combining stunning illustrations with simple yet profound prayers, Dear Mama God is the perfect children's book to introduce children (and their adults) to the heart-expanding practice of referring to the divine in feminine form.
The text thanks Mama God for trees for birds to nest in, hula hoops for dogs to jump through, paper to draw on, cozy fires, loving hearts, and the universe that is our home. The illustrations invite readers into a luminous, comforting presence.
Author Featured In
A Growing Conversation
The author is part of a broader movement to incorporate explicitly feminine God-language into spiritual practices. Though it’s not a new movement—feminine images and language for God abound in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, and for decades, womanist and feminist scholars have pointed out the harm done by male-centric God talk—the conversation is vibrant and growing.
Our God-language matters because it is how we symbolize that which we hold as ideal. And while metaphor is all we ever get for the Mystery we call God, we have a big problem with stuck metaphors. Due to a combination of tradition, sexism, and the limitations of language, our God-language and metaphors are almost exclusively masculine. This harms all of us.
Thinking of God only in masculine terms has enormous implications for how children of all genders grow up. It has contributed to a world in which girls, women, and anyone not traditionally male-bodied remain marginalized and seen as less than. Plus, the feminine qualities in all genders are undervalued.
Feminine God-language is liberating for all of us. Mama God has love enough and space enough for us all.
This new book is a simple and beautiful way to share this expansive and life-affirming concept that God is also a Mother.
Read the scholars
Looking for a deeper dive into why we need the divine in feminine form? Or need to reassure worried loved ones that praying to Mama God is actually supported by the texts many hold as sacred? Read more and find an extensive recommended reading list here.