The Velveteen Rabbit

         " Dad, did you have a a Johnny Lightening M-14?"  A sad look crossed my husband's face. He replied, "Yes, but grandma got rid of it."  When my son came back into the room, my husband was wistfully staring at the computer, browsing through photos of the Johnny Lightening toy. This little exchange prompted an interesting, and very thoughtful, observation.

Love makes you real.

     My son saw his Dad not as a retired Special Forces soldier or as an authority figure, but as a person with feelings. This put a new wrinkle in his brain. As my husband sat there looking at the long lost toy, he softened for just a moment. In that moment, his heart was on his sleeve and my son saw it. "Dad looked like a little kid. Maybe people stay small on the inside, Mom," he said.

      In Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit, the velveteen rabbit becomes a beloved toy. His coat gets shabby but it doesn't matter because he is truly loved. When we look beyond the surface of people, we are able to love their heart and not their exterior. When my son did that, he saw his Dad differently. My son's heart grew a little bigger. His Dad's world got a little sweeter. In the Velveteen Rabbit, the Skin Horse says,"When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, you become REAL." Children make us better and they DO help us become real.