be loved, beloved, and be love
/Hate seems really loud in the world lately, doesn't it?
I want to give up some days. I want to say enough already. I want to curl up and close my eyes to it all.
I need to turn my face toward the light, toward the sun, toward the love.
that all might be loved,
rest in the truth that we are each beloved,
and in turn be compelled to be love
so that all might be loved
and keep the cycle going...
It's one way I sum up For God so loved... and we love because he first loved us and do everything in love and but the greatest of these is love.
In short, I'm naive and hopeful and full of just enough faith to believe love can truly change the world.
(And I'm not saying this in response to anything political lately, nor are the pictures below a reaction to that noise. I do find the timing to be, well, timely, but I have had this planned and scheduled for a while.)
Be loved,
beloved,
and then go and be love.
For me, believing I am loved and beloved is a daily challenge, so there's another twist in this. Those black words? They're in my husband's handwriting. God first showed me how loved and beloved I am through this imperfectly perfect man who has loved me well for 16 years.
And, yes, it hurt, and it's swollen. But it's less pain than any of my piercings, honestly. To me, body art is a beautiful form of art, and any good art has a price. Some people are willing and able to pay up, and others aren't, and that's totally fine. For me, this price was genuinely worth paying.
(And some of you know that I was considering dermal piercings to mark Taiwan, Uganda, and USA on the map, signifying where our kids were born, but I've nixed that idea because I love love love the look without that.)
Last year when I got my enough tattoo, I chose to make it small so that I could hide it under a band-aid at times. That was what suited me then. But now I'm much more comfortable in my skin, with my art, in myself, no matter what others might think of this decision or others. I know who God has made me to be, and my purpose is so much more than to please those in the cheap seats or all the critics.
And so is yours.
So, friends, go and
be loved,
beloved,
and be love.
Amen.