Most Loved in All the World: A Sweet Children’s Book
Oh mama, I think this is the sweetest book in the whole world.
That’s what Mary Polly said after she read Most Loved in All the World by Tonya Cherie Hegamin.
I brought it home from the library last week, and after she read it, Mary Polly took it to school today to share with her teacher and the rest of the class.
Sometimes we find a treasure so dear at the library that we read it over and over and re-check it and feel so sad when we must finally relinquish it back to the library. It grabs our hearts and we just don’t want to let it go. This story is one of those. One that will go on a birthday list.
It is set during slavery and is about a mama who loves her little girl so much that she gives her the chance to be free, even if that opportunity will come at the cost of never seeing her again. The story takes hold of you with surprisingly few words. The beautiful illustrations paint the picture of a time that was so hard that someone might make such a sacrifice. You look back at the pictures again and again, marveling at a mother’s love in the midst of a world of hate. A world gone wrong.
And still going wrong.
How desperately we need saving.
a timely prayer from today’s reading:
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give me the grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
from Phyllis Tickle’s Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
