Friday Foto Friends: Story Time with Lily Grace

Good Morning to all our friends in Bloggy Land!  Mommie said today is "Friday Foto Friends" day, and since she didn't have anything particular to share, she said I could share some special pictures and a story today!

The other day when I was telling you about our Autumn decorations, there was one special "person" I really really loved:

Mr. Scarecrow!!

Mommie said that she had a book that tells a story about a scarecrow and some other special people. I asked her if we could read it together, and she said we could. Here is the book below. Perhaps you have heard of this story:

Yes! The Wizard of Oz!  Mommie said there was a movie made about this story many years ago when she was a little girl, and they used to show it on TV at least once a year.  Mommie said she was very young, and some parts of the story were very scary to her, and so she really wasn't too sure she liked it, but she watched it anyway because it had a happy ending.  Do you have some stories like that that you like?

Anyway, Mommie has this book because a friend gave it to her when Mommie and Daddy were moving away to Kansas for a little while.  This story takes place in Kansas, and Mommie's friend thought this book would be a good one to read if they were going to live in Kansas!

This is a picture from inside the book. Mommie said that the little girl Dorothy looks a lot like me!

And do you see, she has some interesting friends with her...a Tin Man, a Lion, and a SCARECROW!  Oh, and we mustn't leave out her little doggie, "Toto".

I think most of you already know the story of how a big tornado came and picked up Dorothy's house where she lived with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry and her doggy Toto.  Dorothy and Toto were swirling around inside the house on top of the tornado, and it landed in the Land of Oz.

Along the way she met three wonderful new friends, The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion.

Of course we all know that she also met some evil people like witches and other creatures who tried to stop them from getting to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz. 

I won't retell the whole story here, but you know how the Scarecrow wanted some brains so he could be smart and think, and the Tin Woodman wanted a heart, and the Lion wanted courage.  And of course Dorothy just wanted to go back home to Kansas.

In the book (which was written in 1900, by the way!), the famous Ruby Slippers from the movie were actually silver shoes, and the Good Witch Glinda from the south sat on a throne of rubies.  And the Good Witch Glinda tells Dorothy that if she had known the power of her Silver Shoes she could have gone back to her Auntie Em the very first day she came to this country.

But the Scarecrow said if Dorothy had not come and they had not gone on that journey together he would never have had his wonderful brains.

And the Tin Woodman said that he would not have his lovely heart.

And the Lion said he would have lived a coward forever.

And then the Good Witch Glinda told Dorothy to just knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry her wherever she wanted to go....

And so she bid farewell to her dear beloved friends, and then clapped the heels of her shoes together three times and the next thing she knew she was back home in Kansas with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry.

We all remember Dorothy saying in the movie:

"There's no place like home, There's no place like home, There's no place like home..."

Wow! What an amazing  story!

Well, Mommie had a little surprise for me after we finished reading the story.  Look at these beautiful little Ruby Slippers and the story that came along with them!  Mommie said that same special friend gave this to her when she moved to Kansas, with a prayer also that someday she would come back home, which she did, but that's another long story for another time:

"The Red Shoes are leading me home...to heaven, for these shoes symbolize my walk with Jesus. They are red because I've been cleansed by His blood. Jesus wants to walk with you too!"

"Red for the blood of Jesus my sins are washed away,

so every step I now take God will lead the way."

I love these little Ruby Slippers, and the beautiful story about Jesus taking me home to heaven someday. I asked Mommie if I could wear them for a while, and she said I could as long as I told this story to you and also as long as I took good care of them.  

I hope you enjoyed this little story time today. I don't have a real Tin Woodman, or a Lion, or even a little doggy like Toto, but these are some of my friends, and we all enjoyed this story very much.

I hope you have a happy and blessed day, wherever you are!!

And I hope you have these special red shoes to take you home to heaven too.