smile for me. (:

an excerpt from A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado, my beautiful favorite author when i was a kid.

This is a story about a man named Bob.

Bob loved to make people happy.
Bob lived to make people happy.

Bob lived in a land where everyone wore coats. Bob never asked Why? He only asked Which? "Which coat should I wear?"

Bob's mother loved blue. So to please her he wore a blue coat. And since he never left his house and saw no one but his mother, he was happy, for she was happy. Bob grew up and got a job. The first day of his first job, he got up early and put on his best blue coat and walked down the street. The crowds on the street, however, didn't like blue. They liked green. Everyone on the street wore green. When the people saw his blue coat and said "yuck," Bob felt guilty that he had caused a "yuck" to come out of somebody's mouth. Bob dashed into a clothing store and bought a green coat. When he arrived at work, he walked into his boss's office wearing a green coat. "Yuck!" said his boss. Bob thought his boss must be like his mother, so he put on his blue coat. "Double Yuck!" responded the boss. His boss got up, walked to the closet, and produced a yellow coat. "We like yellow here," he instructed.

When it was time to go home, Bob replaced the yellow coat with the green and walked through the streets. Just before he got to his house, he put the blue coat over the green and yellow coat and went inside.

Bob learned that life with three coats was hard. He was always hot and his movements restrained. With time, Bob realized he could change the colors of his coats with ease. With practice, he was able to shed one coat and replace it with another in a matter of seconds. Bob was very pleased. Everybody liked Bob because everyone thought he was just like them. Bob was elected mayor and president of his company.

One day, some yellow-coated people stormed into his office.

"We have found a criminal that needs to be executed," they announced, shoving a man toward Bob's desk. Bob was shocked. This man wasn't wearing a coat at all, just a T-shirt.
"Where is your coat?" asked Bob.
"I don't wear one," replied the man.
"You don't have one?"
"I don't want one. It is not their approval I seek."

Bob had never heard such words. He didn't know what to say.

"I am here to show people they don't have to please people. I am here to tell the truth."

"Who are you?" asked Bob.
The man answered simply, "Who are you?"