You are loved.
Did you know that?
Every second of every day.
No. Matter. What.
Even when you feel like a giant irreparable mess.
Even when you are full of anxiety and uncertainty and shame.
Even when all you can see in the mirror are the cracks instead of the light that shines through them.
Even then.
Now and always.
This was the theme of the talk I gave on Tuesday night. The words were as much a reminder to me as I hope they were a reminder to those that heard it.
In the talk, I mentioned a part of a poem by Galway Kinnell called St. Francis and the Sow. It goes like this:
The bud
stands for all things,a
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within,
of self-blessing
I especially love these two lines:
“though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness”
How often do I have to be reminded that I am loved?
How often do I have to relearn that I am a beloved child of God?
Too often.
Almost daily in fact.
But that’s okay.
God is the ultimate patient teacher.
God will continue to remind me day after day through both small ways and big ways.
God will continue to nudge me and say: “Put the rubric down. Stop assigning points to your life” until I do.
“… sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing it’s loveliness…”
So here’s your lesson for today:
Put the rubric down.
Merely by your existence you have earned an A+.
You are lovely.
You are loved.
Live into that truth today.
