You Are Special

From now on, if there's no post entitled "I'm in labor," just assume I'm not in labor yet. If I keep talking about it, I'll lose my mind. So I'm going to talk about something else! :)

I was extremely excited to find a board book version of You Are Special, by Max Lucado, for the baby. If you haven't been introduced to this book yet, you need to go find a copy! It's such a beautiful story about God's love for all of us, typical of the very gracious Mr. Lucado. And the illustrations are fabulous. The only thing I would wish for in this book would be a little more diverse set of Wemmicks. Next edition, maybe?

Rather than do a more traditional review on this one, I'll summarize the plot for you because the story itself is the beauty of the book for children and adults alike.

You see, a man named Eli has made little wooden people named the Wemmicks. The Wemmicks all have star stickers and dot stickers that they give each other based on how talented or interesting or beautiful they are -- stars are a sign of approval and dots are a sign of disapproval. And poor little Punchinello has a bunch of dots and no stars. But he runs into a Wemmick with no stars and no dots -- they just don't stick to her! When he asks her why, she says she it's because she goes to see Eli every day. So Punchinello gives it a shot. Eli tells him that he loves him, and that it doesn't matter what the other Wemmicks think. Punchinello is special because Eli made him. And when he understands that, his stickers won't stick either! He asks him to come to the shop to visit every day.

So this is a story that fits one of the most fundamental values of our family -- that we are special because Jesus loves us, not because of what people think of us or because of what we do. We've already read this story to Lilia several times and I hope that it becomes a favorite of hers as well!