Lately, every time I read my granddaughter a child’s book, God begins to speak a message to my heart. It began with “Pete and the Blue Magic Sunglasses.” Summarizing, Pete the Cat receives these blue magic sunglasses from a friend because he has the “blue cat blues,” and when he puts them on, he has the ability to see things with a new cheery perspective. He then shares his blue magic sunglasses with his friends along the way to help them in their struggles. I realized that so many times when we lose perspective to what is true during the hard times, we too may need new revelation lenses to look through. Heavenly perspective changes our outlook and hope is restored. Then, we too, can pass it on like Pete the Cat to those we meet in the path of life.
The second children’s book I read aloud was “You are Special.” It is a book about where you receive your identity. The main character is Punchinello who is a wooden person with many dots on his body. The wooden community of people are either covered with dots or stars depending on how others viewed them. The dots were bad and the stars were good. Punchinello meets a girl who does not have either stars or dots on her body. She has chosen not to allow either the praise or rejection of her fellow wooden people to stick on her body because of her relationship with her Maker and the Maker of all the wooden people. Punchinello and the girl become friends and she introduces him to their Maker. She passes on what she found true. As he spends time with his Maker receiving His acceptance and love, the dots begin to fall off. The Maker’s opinion is the only one that matters.
The last book that I read to my granddaughter carried a message of unconditional love. It is my favorite. “Love You Forever” begins with a mother who has a newborn baby. She rocks her baby and sings him a song every night.
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As longs as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
The rest of the book takes you on a journey with the boy and all the frustrations that the mother experiences from the different stages of the boy growing up. At each stage, whether a toddler, a teenager, or a grown man, the mother waits for her son to be asleep and rocks him in her arms singing the same song. Her love for him never changes no matter what he does.
Now the man is grown and has a family of his own. He gets a call from his old mother asking him to come as she is very sick. Her son goes to see her, and she tries to sing the song but is too weak. He then picks her up in his arms and sings the song to her. This is the part of the book that always makes me cry. The end of the book shows the son going home and picking up his own baby daughter. He begins to sing her the song, and the legacy continues.
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
It now reminds me of when both my mom and Papa were dying. The roles were reversed, but after all the unconditional love I had received from them, my heart had no choice but to reciprocate in their time of need. It was a precious time to pass it on…the unconditional love.
All three stories show us how once we receive either hope when our eyes are open to heavenly perspectives, or right identity when we encounter our Maker and His acceptance and love, or unconditional love not based on our performance, we too can then pass it on. I see this as a continual process and choice when opportunities present themselves in the challenges of life. Will I put on my blue magic sunglasses that enable me to see God’s purposes in every situation? Will I allow my identity to be shaped by my Maker’s acceptance and love regardless of mere man’s opinions? Will I receive God’s unconditional love for me regardless of my performance? The choice remains with me. The choice remains with you. I choose YES.
Jeremiah 31:3…Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
Matthew 13:16…But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;
