The Rabbit Who Was Loved Into Being

In Margery Williams' beloved children's story The Velveteen Rabbit, a stuffed toy asks the old Skin Horse a question that haunts every human heart: "What is Real?" The Skin Horse answers with hard-won wisdom: "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."

The Rabbit is confused. He looks at his sewn seams and sawdust stuffing and wonders how something so ordinary could ever become anything more. But as the Boy loves him — carries him to bed, whispers to him, refuses to sleep without him — the Rabbit's fur grows shabby and his eyes lose their shine. He becomes less pristine and more Real. His identity is not manufactured. It is received through love.

This is the gospel's quiet revolution. We spend our lives trying to construct an identity — stitching together accomplishments, titles, and the approval of others. But the God who spoke galaxies into existence looks at us the way that Boy looked at his Rabbit. El Roi, the God Who Sees, does not love a polished version of us. He loves us threadbare and fading, and that love is what makes us Real.

You don't have to build yourself into someone worth loving. The Almighty already chose you, shabby seams and all.