The Beloved

He is the Lover, and has been from all eternity. In love he created all that is, in love He redeemed it, and in love He shall reconcile it to Himself. All that is good, right and beautiful flows from His love, for love is the very essence of Himself.  And if He is the Lover, then it is you who are the Beloved.

Yes, you. You crouch there, locked in your shame, paralysed by regret. You have done things which destroyed your very concept of yourself, and the sickening guilt pursues you. You had never seen yourself as a person who would do such things, and are horrified to find out that you are. How can you stand upright again? How can you look the world in the eye, or face your own reflection in the mirror? If the world knew the truth, the world would despise you. And yet, you are the Beloved. He has looked on sin, entered into the very pit of Hell, and when He looks at you, He sees His child. You are the Beloved.

You are so tired of the pain of rejection; so tired of people who promise so much and deliver so little. The more you need, the less they want to know you. There have been those who have hated you and scorned you, and you searched your heart with many tears to try to find a reason why. But none of their reasons seemed to stick, and left you more confused than ever. “What is wrong with me?” you cried out silently to the empty night. And you thought nobody was there. But He was there, He who, Himself, has been despised and rejected, a thing from which men turned away their eyes. For you are the Beloved, the apple of His eye. You are worth more to Him than all the riches of the world, and he longs for the day when He shall wipe every tear from your eyes. You are the Beloved.

Your life has gone nowhere. Your dreams fell apart in your hands, and trickled through your fingers into nothingness. You could have accepted a few failures as events to learn from and grow successful, but what do you do with this meaningless mediocrity? You have achieved nothing except survival, and just enough material comfort to numb out your aching soul. How is the world any better off for your existence? You are just part of the mindless machinery of the system, interchangeable with thousands. Yet you are the Beloved. You are made in His image, and one day His splendour will be fully revealed in you. It is not for your work or achievements that He loves you, but because you are His – the Beloved.

Pain has crushed you, and melted you in its dark heat, until nothing is left but an existential scream. You did not seek affliction, but it sought you, tearing at you with the teeth of hell. Such pain, such loss, such anguish: the crying point that God Himself must hate you to abandon you in such a place! Yet you are the Beloved. You are never abandoned, He walks through the furnace with you, and an eternity of joy waits on the other side. There will be justice, there will be consolation, and there will be the restoration of all things. You will know that you are, and always have been, the Beloved.

You are the Beloved, and He has loved you from all eternity. Neither death, nor Hell, nor all the forces of evil that ever were or ever could be can come between you. He has loved you with an everlasting love, and to Him you are the altogether beautiful. For you He bore all things and endured all things, and one day, when the shadows of this world are torn away, you will know just how utterly and wonderfully you are loved.