My daughter loves her books. It’s quite adorable to see her walk over to her book shelf, grab a book, bring it to me, and sit on my lap. I enjoy reading to her even though she rarely lets me finish the story before she is on to the next book.
This one day, a couple weeks ago was different, though. She brought me the book Corduroy to read. I was rather hyper and proceeded to read the book in a very animated way. She was engaged with the book and so was I. While I was reading to her, I found something very surprising.
The Surprising Thing I Found in a Kid’s Book
If you’re not familiar with Corduroy, let me fill you in. The scene opens at a toy store where a little teddy bear named, Corduroy is hoping that today will be the day that he gets to go to a home. A mom and daughter are introduced into the story. The daughter wants to get Corduroy, but her mom doesn’t let her. She says no for a couple of reasons: she doesn’t have the money and Corduroy wasn’t even in good condition. He had a button missing and that made the mom not see the value in Corduroy.
Corduroy didn’t realize that he was missing a button so he spent that whole night trying to find his missing button. He was unsuccessful, though. Very sad, I know. The next day, the little girl who was at the toy store the day before comes in as soon as the store opens. She had gathered up all of her money that night and purchased Corduroy first thing in the morning.
When she got him home she fixed his missing button. She was ecstatic to have her Corduroy and Corduroy was ecstatic to finally have a home. A place where he could be loved.
So, what’s the surprising thing I found in the story?
Corduroy is a Message of GRACE!
As I read that book to my little girl, I couldn’t help but think about how much alike we all are to Corduroy. We all have a button or two missing. We are not perfect. We are quite broken, in fact. We have times where we are not so desirable. Often times, we feel out of place. Many of us don’t have a place we can call home. We may have a place to stay, but a home? That is something we deeply desire. Corduroy desired a home. A place where he could be loved. And he found it.
The little girl saw something in Corduroy that many people didn’t. She saw the value in him despite his brokenness. While Corduroy spent all night trying to find his missing button so that he could fix himself, she spent all night gathering her money so that she could purchase him the next day.
Dare I say that the little girl reminds me of what Jesus did for us? You bet I do. He purchased us with his blood. Even though we have some buttons missing, he loved us anyway and paid the price that had to be paid for us to be in a relationship with God.
Oh, it doesn’t stop there. It gets better. The little girl brought Corduroy home after she bought him. She fixed his missing button. She put him back together. Well, the Holy Spirit does the same thing to us. He takes the brokenness in our lives and transforms us into who we are supposed to be. If we think we can put ourselves back together on our own we are kidding ourselves. We are made new only by the grace of God. God takes us while we are messed up and he loves us anyway. That’s the beauty of grace. Grace is what I found in my daughter’s book, Corduroy.
Romans 5:8 (NASB)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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