CAIN’s New Children’s Book Emphasizes Eternal Blessings over Material Gains
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Published Aug 27, 2024
The award-winning CCM band renowned for their matching outfits and signature harmonies has channeled their talents into a children's book aimed at teaching kids timeless, eternal truths. CAIN's new book, I'm So Blessed, is a lyrical picture book based on their hit song that reminds children that God loves them in the midst of trials. It climbed to No. 1 on Amazon's list of children's Christian early readers fiction and follows three characters -- Tay-Tay Tangerine, Logo Lemon, and Maddie Melon -- that are based on the group's real-world siblings: Taylor Cain Matz, Logan Cain, and Madison Cain Johnson.
"The concept of trying to teach your kid godly things feels daunting sometimes," Logan Cain told Crosswalk Headlines.
"And so this is an arrow that a parent can put in their bag" to teach "their kids in the way they should go."
Cain burst onto the Christian music scene in 2020 with their song Rise Up (Lazarus), which won Breakout Single of the Year at the 2021 K-LOVE Fan Awards. All total, they've had nine Top 10 hits and two No. 2 singles on Billboard's Christian Airplay chart. One of those hits was I'm So Blessed, which rose to No. 8 on the Christian Airplay and No. 3 on the Hot Christian Songs charts.
All three Cain siblings have young children.
"Children's books meant very little to me until I had children," he said. "But one night I was reading, and my daughter gravitated towards the same couple of books, and then [another] night, my two-year-old, who obviously can't read, started to recite this book, word for word in order as if she were reading it."
A lightbulb went off in his head. Logan wanted to "get in the game" with a Bible-centric book based on a CAIN song. Maja Andersen illustrated it.
"The blessing that we sing about isn't necessarily the blessings you can put your hands on, but the blessed assurance that Jesus is yours, that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life," he said. "We're hoping to raise our kids to understand that in an increasingly material and content-driven world that, your values are not wrapped up in what you have or what you can make, but to whom you belong."
The book has lessons for parents, too, he added.
"My character is trying to do a backflip in front of a crowd, and he crashes, and he's embarrassed -- and being embarrassed is a huge trial to overcome as a little kid, but being embarrassed is rooted in pride, which is a huge trial for an adult," he said.
Fatherhood, Logan Cain said, changed him.
"I felt like a part of me came alive when my kids were born," he said, "and it really does make me much more desperate for time with the Father, to be honest, because I see how important my time is to my little girls."
Photo Credit: ©Instagram/CAIN
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
