What Makes You Real

In Margery Williams' beloved children's book The Velveteen Rabbit, a stuffed rabbit asks the wisest toy in the nursery what it means to become Real. The old Skin Horse answers that Real isn't about how you're made. It happens when a child loves you — not just for a little while, but really, truly loves you. "Does it hurt?" the Rabbit asks. "Sometimes," the Skin Horse admits. But once you are Real, you can never become unreal again. It lasts for always.

The Rabbit spends the whole story trying to understand his identity. Is he just a toy? Something to be discarded when a newer gift arrives? It is only through being deeply, sacrificially loved by the Boy that he finally becomes what he was always meant to be.

We ask the same questions. Am I just the sum of my failures? My job title? The roles I perform? Scripture answers with infinitely more authority than the Skin Horse ever could. The Almighty declares, "I have called you by name; you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1). Our identity does not come from what we do or how others see us. It comes from being loved — fiercely, permanently, sacrificially — by the God who made us.

And yes, sometimes becoming who we truly are does hurt. Growth always costs something. But once the Most High has called you His own, that identity can never be taken back. It lasts for always.