Loved Into Real

In Margery Williams' children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit, a stuffed toy asks the wise old Skin Horse what it means to become Real. The Horse answers that it doesn't happen to toys who break easily or have sharp edges. "It doesn't happen all at once," he says. "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."

The Rabbit learns that becoming Real has nothing to do with how you're made — whether your seams are straight or your whiskers are fashionable. You become Real when someone loves you deeply and for a long time. By the story's end, the Rabbit is shabby, threadbare, and missing an eye. And he has never been more himself.

We live in a world that insists identity is something we construct — curated, polished, carefully kept. But scripture tells a different story. The Almighty does not look at outward appearance. He looks at the heart. And it is His love, persistent and unearnable, that makes us who we truly are. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God — and that is what we are" (1 John 3:1).

You don't become real by being impressive. You become real by being loved. And the God who knit you together has never stopped.