A Children's Book That Touched My Heart

I grew up reading library books at breakfast time. Us kids would sit and eat our cold cereal while peering at fun, colorful childrens books. We called them "breakfast books". These were all the children's books that my mom checked out for us at the library each week. I have such fun memories of going to the library with my mom, and filling her library bag to the brim with books. I'm really thankful that I have a mom who instilled that love of reading and spending time at the library from as early as I can remember.

Now it's my time to instill that in my children, and Cami is well on her way! Since she was a baby, she has loved books with a passion, and could sit her little toddler self down with a pile of books and be entertained for hours. Here's the budding little reader at about 6 months:

Lexi, on the other hand, is a whole different story. :) She could pretty much care less about books, and would rather tear pages or pull off every pop-up flap she can find. That's ok though, we still love you Lex. I'm very grateful that the girls have two grandmas who also have a passion and love for books, both being teachers, and have shared so many with us.

Since we had such a vast collection of books when Cami was younger, I didn't feel the need to check books out from the library. But as she's gotten older, her favorite thing to do is sit on the library floor in one of the childrens book aisles, and read books to herself one by one. Then she hands me a stack of books that she wants to take home to read together later. It's always hard to pull her away from the little world she's created for herself. But I'm thrilled that she loves to read so much.

Now, we always have a library bag bulging with books up to our limit. I love to walk through the aisles of the children's books, and pick out ones that I think she'll like. I know, I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I usually do. :) I like cute, colorful, enticing looking ones with clever titles. I also like to look for books to go along with a certain theme we're learning about that week, or a letter of the alphabet we're focusing on. So this past week, I picked out this one:

Far Flutterby by Karen Kingsbury. It's the sweetest little book. I saw it on the shelf at the library, and knew that Cami would like reading about caterpillars and butterflies. And the cover has sparkles on it, which is always a bonus. :)

I just read it to her tonight for bedtime story, and actually cried at the end. I finished in tears, and Cami was lookin at me like I was crazy. I just chuckled and said, "I like this story!" Karen Kingsbury is a New York Times Bestselling author who has written lots of Christian-themed inspirational books, apparently. This was the first one I've read, and it was so sweet.

It's about Cody the Caterpillar, who lives in a world of brown and only eats and sleeps and sees branches and leaves. He wonders if there's more to life, because he's bored and just wants more. Then one day a colorful bird visits him and tells him that there is a land called Far Flutterby where God has good plans for his creatures to fly. And the bird tells Cody to have faith because these plans include him. And later, a butterfly visits him and says "You need to be patient, you need to hold on" and tells him he'll find a way there.

After trying to fly and falling to the ground, Cody thought "life can be tricky, upside down, sideways, and pokey and prickly" but he held on to hope. Then he ends up feeling weird and trapped in a cocoon, miserable and thinking all is lost. But he shouts "I can't give up hope, I have to believe!" And after going through the hardest thing he'd ever been through, he "struggled...and struggled...and finally broke free!" He had a new body, and now he had WINGS! He was now a bright, new butterfly, for those were God's plans.

It ends with Cody calling down to his friends, "Have faith through the hard times, believing in more! For there in the journey and stuck in the sting, the struggle...the struggle...is what gives you WINGS!"

As I was reading that last line to Cami, I got all choked up and realized the power and truth and hope of those words.Have faith through the hard times. The struggle is what gives you wings. What a beautiful reminder. It can be applied to anyone, going through anything in life. And it reminds us of the hope of the resurrection, and that one day we will all be restored to perfect bodies. Anything we are struggling with now is but a small moment. And I'm thankful that Cody the Caterpillar reminded me of that tonight.