Finally, on this last day of this eating disorder awareness week, we encounter, perhaps, the trickiest issue: love. The Most High’s love is so thorough and passionate, it outlasts time. It is everlasting.
“… Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3
We are that wanted.
We often underestimate that reality. We can get distorted tunnel vision, convinced by the rejection we encounter in our lives.
Our experiences often produce a lie with each negative encounter: “you are unlovable.”
Within the pressure image or performance-based love, acceptability or value produces, we can absorb the harmful message we are too worthless or ugly, often through the code word of “fat,” to deserve the Love of the Almighty.
But, indeed, love is at the center of those Divine thoughts…
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me… How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. Psalms 139:17-18
Anyone and anything else telling us otherwise is operating from a place of deception, not truth.
Our Father wants us to bask, accept and explore just what His love for us means. And, He is certainly not annoyed when we do so. Rather, He feels the excitement as we reach a closer relationship with Him.
And we are all on that continuum.
When we equate our lovability with an exterior image, it is almost impossible, by those standards, for ANY of us to achieve any feeling of being loved. Image is a hard taskmaster. It demands upkeep, change, punishment, molding and striving to qualify. Image rejects unconditional.
But Our Father places no parameters on His determined unconditional love and acceptance of us.
“… Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3
There’s no expiration date on everlasting.
If we stop, to take that in, we can see there is Someone who loves and treasures us when others have walked away, taking their conditional criteria with them.
There’s no need for any of us to wish we were loved. We already are. And, because we have a loving Father, I believe He creates unique love-soaked evidence applying to each of us on that most personal level.
It’s not about wishing; it’s about relationship. Dare to participate in that relationship with the Creator of all today!