Ep. 90 God's Design in Diversity with Tara Hackney

In this episode of Reimagine Childhood from the Early Childhood Christian Network, host Monica Healer talks with author and jesusloves.org founder Tara Hackney about rewriting the classic song "Jesus Loves the Little Children" after adopting a traumatized two-year-old from India and realizing the original lyrics felt outdated and incomplete. Tara shares how her experiences in global ministry and adoption awakened a deeper passion to help children understand they are purposefully made, personally known, and perfectly loved by Jesus, and how diversity reflects God's grand design. They discuss practical ways educators can honor God's image in every child through respectful interactions, creativity, empathy-building experiences, and cultural exposure, while connecting everyday actions to God's love. Monica also highlights upcoming ECCN conferences in Georgetown and McKinney, Texas.

00:00 Welcome to Reimagine Childhood

00:50 Meet Tara Hackney

02:07 Why Rewrite the Song

03:12 Adoption Sparked the Change

04:58 Gods Grand Design in Diversity

09:01 Purposefully Made Personally Known

10:54 Practical Classroom Mindset Shifts

15:01 Creativity Justice and Reasoning

16:42 Let Kids Create and Learn

19:24 Do Overs and Childlike Mercy

22:30 Quick Story Break Setup