Optimism

Tonight I read a true story about a couple who traveled with their family in China.

While biking with their boys through a small village, they stumbled upon the shop of a 90 year old herbalist. The wife had insomnia and the husband had low energy. The elderly doctor gave them each some tea. The wife thought for sure that it was the same tea but later found it was not. They both began to feel better within a few weeks.

For a long time, she thought it was a powerful placebo...if you believe, it will get better.

Is that a placebo or is that a thing called faith?
A thing called optimism?

A short while later, I read a beautiful children's book my friend Kath gave me last year. It's Max Lucado's story, You Are Special. A village of wooden dolls gave each other stickers all the time. The beautiful and talented dolls got stars. The unusual or deformed or plain dolls got dots. One little fellow was covered in dots...so many that he gave up on himself.

One day he meets a beautiful doll who doesn't have any stickers. He asks her how that can be so. She tells him to go visit Eli, the Wood Carver who created all of them. Eli tells Punchinello that if he only cares about what Eli thinks of him, nothing else will stick to him that others put on him.

Optimism.

Acceptance.

Joy.

To have a Maker who believes in me helps me through the Journey into Heart Land.