Beloved.

Linking up with Bonnie at Faith Barista:

Beloved

I literally cringed inside when I saw the ‘word’ that Bonnie had chosen for this week’s ‘writing jam.’

No. Not that.

Not beloved.

I looked up the word online, and it said “dearly loved.”

I have a memory of my cousin many years ago, a newlywed, and I commented just how radiant and happy she looked. Her husband then responded in jest, “O yeah, that’s a sign of a man taking care of his woman!”

It was typical Trini humour, but it holds more truth than you would care to admit.

Not that it takes a man to make a woman happy, but deep beneath that trite statement is the knowledge that here is a woman who knows and feel she is not merely loved, but dearly loved. Her countenance shows that she living out her identity of being ‘beloved’.

I have seen that countenance on several people, not just women. It is a soft glow of joy and contentment, almost as if they are resting in a loving embrace. I think of one special lady who overflowed with her knowledge of being loved on to others:

Well, sad to say, no one has seen that type of countenance on me, for a very long time.

You see, I have had an extended season of ‘hardship’ that has left me feeling abandoned, not loved.

Punished, not embraced.

Left out, not included.

Despised, not valued.

That was the ‘feeling.’

And yes, that evil lion was seeking someone to devour and came upon this likely prey.

Beaten down, he kicked her harder, bombarding her with negative thoughts and harsh circumstances.

She weakly put up her hands and said to that lion, “Stop, no more. Can’t you see I’m of no use anymore? I am no danger to your kingdom. So just stop it.”

Apparently he did not believe her because he continued to do everything he could to keep her in that state: that state of feeling ‘unloved’ by the One she yearned to love her. It was apparent that she soon felt unworthy of any love and accepted evil darts hurled at her as her just due in life.

Fast forward to today, a new year that started with a new word, ‘fruitful’.

What? She had never felt more ‘barren.’

But she knew something new was happening when for the first time in many years, on New Year’s Eve, she wanted to go out to a service at a church that was not her own, in the cold winter, in the dark.

This coincided with her reading Bonnie Gray’s words and hearing Steven Furtick’s expounding of God’s Word. A clear theme was being revealed.

Be fruitful in your land of affliction.

So now, she is learning to lay aside the ‘feeling’, and take the fact that His Word is and always has been and always will be true. The Word says,

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world [Sita!] that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” (John 3:16 (AMP)).

She wants to wear that new robe of ‘beloved’ and wear it well.

She also knows it will take time and she wants to think when they see her, “She lives, and looks like she is loved, doesn’t she?”

Beloved. Not such a bad word after all.

Romans 8:35-39

Amplified Bible (AMP)

35 Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

36 Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors [a]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

38 For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

39 Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.