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Editor's note: This essay from Christian musician Jason Gray is abridged from a blog post at The Rabbit Room.

"L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." Translation: "What is essential is invisible to the eyes." From Antoine De Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince.

These are the words on a plaque hanging in the office of my new hero. Who might that be? Kierkegard? Billy Graham? Bono?

Would you be surprised if I told you it was … Mister Rogers?

Let me explain: On a recent set of tour dates, I was talking books with Neil Tankersly, keyboardist for Echoing Angels, when he recommended a book about children's television icon Mister Rogers. At first I was skeptical and feigned enough interest to be polite, but not enough to encourage him to tell me more about it. Not taking my cue, he continued to rave about the book and then even started looking up YouTube videos of Mister Rogers for me to watch. This was not cool, and it made me seriously question not only my new friend's taste in books, but his masculinity as well.

A smiling face, loved by children round the world

I remember groaning inwardly at the prospect of having to sit there and watch what I imagined would be lame video clips of a man I had pre-judged as a bland, out of step, simple, cardigan-wearing milquetoast with little to interest or offer a cultured and savvy sophisticate like me.

The lesser of my confessions today is my regret over my self-righteousness and the countless ways it blinds me. But my more pertinent confession is that I couldn't have been more wrong about Mister Rogers! It wasn't 30 seconds into the first clip before I found tears in my eyes and was doing everything I could to suppress embarrassing sobs as I watched Fred Rogers's acceptance speech at the 1997 Emmy Awards, a speech that was such a selfless and honoring expression of love that as the camera scanned the audience, even the posturing Hollywood crowd in attendance was transformed—beautiful actors and actresses losing their composure, their makeup running as they fought back their own tears. What was visited upon them—and me—through Mister Rogers was a moment of humanity and grace.

An accident? I don't think so. Another YouTube clip shows Rogers's guiding philosophy for his show as he talks about what a powerful medium television is, and wondered "why wouldn't we use this medium to broadcast grace?" It was then that the scales fell from my eyes and I felt as if I saw this dear man correctly for the first time. Far from the bland, weak, pushover I had earlier dismissed, I now saw an intentional and innovative champion of the gospel whose brilliance was outmatched only by his capacity for kindness.

'I'm Proud of You'

After returning home, I ordered the book, I'm Proud of You by Tim Madigan, the story of a surprising friendship that was born out of a visit when Madigan—a journalist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram—flew to Pittsburgh to interview Rogers.

Expecting little, Madigan was immediately disarmed by the intense sincerity and humble kindness of this giant of children's television. As Rogers spoke about his philosophy of imagining he was looking through the camera into the eyes of each child watching, trying to be fully present to their feelings and needs, Madigan writes of how Rogers demonstrated this the first time they spoke:

"Do you know what the most important thing in the world is to me right now?"

"No," I said.

"Talking to Mr. Tim Madigan on the telephone."

At the time of their initial meeting, Madigan was in the throes of a desperate depression and on the verge of divorce. His personal and professional life caving in around him, he found an unlikely offer of friendship from Rogers—a relationship that would help shape his reformation in the years to come.

I don't want to give too much of the story away here, but the book chronicles how Rogers's wisdom, kindness, and unconditional love guided Madigan through the darkest days of his life, giving him the grace and the courage to find a way out of the darkness, and giving him a glimpse of the Jesus Rogers testified about.

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