“You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. 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 your 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.”
― Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit
This is a snippet of the conversation between the Skin Horse and the Rabbit as Skin Horse is telling Rabbit about becoming real.
We live in a world desperate to encounter ‘real.’ The wearying need to be ever suspicious, always alert to scams, double-checking every email, second guessing every written and aired report, leads to cynicism, emotional fatigue, burnout. But to know ‘real’ is such a relief, so refreshing, so heartening. We talk enthusiastically about encountering someone who is ‘the real meal deal.’ Jesus is all that and so much more!
In becoming like Jesus, we have the incredible privilege of getting to know the Kingdom into which we’ve been adopted and the atmosphere in which we now are starting to feel at home. It’s an atmosphere rich in mutual, noncompetitive, loving relationships. Shalom reigns there. At the same time, a steep curve awaits us in unlearning old ways of showing love as we acquire the ‘new to us’ love practices Jesus taught. But in his great faithfulness, Jesus provides us with many opportunities to love selflessly and generously. Let’s be on the lookout for the next one! Holy Spirit helping us, we will become more and more like the One our hearts adore. Til we become ‘real.’ PD
