You are Special

You Are Special ~ a heartwarming children’s story about a puppet named Punchinello; written by Max Lucado. This story is about The Wemmicks who are small wooden people. Each, carved by a wood carver called 'Eli'. Now there were all kinds of Wemmicks - tall, fat, short, thin, big nosed, small nosed, all sizes and shapes of Wemmicks lived in the village. All day, every day, the Wemmicks did the same thing. They gave each other stickers. Each Wemmick had a box of gold star stickers and a box of grey dot stickers and up and down the streets all over the city, people would be sticking stars or dots on one another. The pretty Wemmicks, the ones with smooth wood and fine paint, they always got stars. The ones that could sing well, the ones that could articulate well, the ones that dressed well, they got stars, but if the wood was rough, if the paint was chipped, the Wemmicks gave them dots. The talented ones always got stars and sometimes Wemmicks had so many stars people would just give them a star because they had so many. Sometimes Wemmicks with so many stars felt so good about themselves that when they saw their stars they would do something great and get another star.

Punchinello was one of the other Wemmicks, those who received only grey dots. He wasn't talented or gifted as the other Wemmicks and people put grey dots all over him all the time. He would try to jump high and he would fall. He would try to skip over the pond and he would fall in the water. People would give him a dot. He would try and explain why he did that but he would mess up and people would give him a grey dot and finally Punchinello hated himself so much that he didn't even want to go outside any more. If he did, he hung around with other Wemmicks that were full of grey dots also. People would see him on the street and say, "He deserves dots" and they would give him a grey dot just because he had so many. They would say, "He isn't a good wooden person" and Punchinello would agree and say, "I am not a good wooden person at all".

One day Punchinello met Lucia and the interesting thing about her was that she had no stars or dots. She was just wooden and it wasn't because people didn't try to give her stickers; it is just that the stickers wouldn't stick. Some admired Lucia for having no dots and because of that they would run up and give her a star but it would fall off. Some would look down on her for having no stars and they would come up and give her a dot. That wouldn't stick either and Punchinello thought 'that's the way it should really be, I don't want anyone's marks' so he asked the sticker less woman how she did it.

She said, "I go to see Eli the wood carver every morning. Eli is the one who made us. You should go and do the same thing. In fact, I told Eli about you and he is waiting for you." Punchinello was horrified and he was sure Eli would never want to see him, but finally he got the courage and went to the wood shop.

The wood carver was so thrilled to see him and told him he had been waiting for him and he looked at Punchinello and said "it looks like they really gave you a lot of bad marks didn't they?" Punchinello tried to apologize and started to make excuses for the many dots all over him. The wood carver said, "You don't have to defend yourself to me child. I don't care what the other Wemmicks think." "You don't," Punchinello said. "No, and you shouldn't either. Who are they to give you either stars or dots? They are Wemmicks, just like you. What they think doesn't matter Punchinello. All that matters is what I think, and I think you’re pretty special."

Eli looked at him and said "you are very special because you are mine, and that is all that matters to me. I made you. Every day I have been hoping that you would come and see me" and Punchinello said, “I came because I met Lucia and she told me about you and I would like to be like that. Why don't the stickers stick on her?" Eli replied, "because she decided that what I think is more important to her than what they think. The stickers only stick if you let them." "What". "The stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust in my love, the less you care about the stickers." For now you just come and see me every day and let me remind you of how much I love you." The wood carver took him off the bench and set him down and said, "remember you are special because I made you and I don't make mistakes." And as Punchinello left the wood carver’s cottage, a dot fell off. The End

Sometimes I need this gentle reminder. All God wants is me, nothing more, nothing less, he doesn't say if I do this or that, then I am good enough to come to Him. Rather He says "come as you are and remember YOU ARE SPECIAL".

Blessings