7 Lessons from Max Lucado’s “You Are Special”

Max Lucado’s children’s book You Are Special is a favorite of mine and a beautiful story with many facets to it and much to be learned from it. It is a sad story of judgment; of pride and slavery; of sin and brokenness.  It is also a beautiful story of witness and hope – a story of intercession and prayer. Ultimately it is a story of love and the heart of God. Below are 7 lessons from the story that I shared a few years back with a women’s group at our parish. Please note that I will include the main plot line as I go, so you should be able to follow along even if you have not read the book.  I do highly recommend that you pick up a copy for yourself  – it is a story whose message is ageless and timeless.— 1 —This is a story of judgement.The story opens with us witnessing a typical day in the life of  the wooden Wemmicks. These gangly wooden people spend all their time furiously giving each other grey dots or golden stars. The grey dots are placed on Wemmicks who are perceived to be “bad” and the golden stars are placed on those Wemmicks perceived to be “good”. The judgement about who is to receive dots and who is to receive stars are made purely at the whim of other Wemmicks. We are told that the one thing all the Wemmicks share in common is that they have all been made by the Woodcarver, Eli, who lives in his shop on a hill at the top of the town. Most of the Wemmick’s hardly acknowledgement their maker’s existence, as they busily go about their daily lives. The Wemmicks are far to preoccupied with passing judgments on others than