As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
–Psalm 40:11
In the children’s’ story, The Velveteen Rabbit, we’re told about a little stuffed rabbit who wanted to be real. So one day, he had a conversation with the skin horse in the closet and asked, “What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside of you and a stick-out handle?”
And the horse told him, “Real isn’t how you are made… It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the rabbit. “Sometimes,” the horse said. “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
Being loved means putting yourself out there and taking risks. But when you’re loved authentically, the pain that comes with it is incidental to the love itself. So take the risk and allow yourself to be really and truly loved. Yes, you may experience pain. But when you entrust yourself to be loved by God and others, the reward will be much greater!
PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE TO BE LOVED BY GOD AND OTHERS AND YOUR REWARD WILL BE GREATER THAN ANY PAIN YOU EXPERIENCE!
