"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

Within the afternoon I kept feeling wooed into the story of The Velveteen Rabbit...... and one of my favorite lines danced in my head...

" The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him."

And as I thought through the story and the other lines that I love I crossed paths with the Father's intentions for the reminder ....

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

It has been the powerful love of the Father that has born down upon my life in the most beautifully tangible ways that have brought me to a place where He has empowered me to walk into who He always intentioned for me to be.....

"He longed to become real, to know what it felt like..." that statement sums up so much of the journey of my heart.... a longing so deep ... so seemingly far away....

Today the whispers on the wind were accompanied by the loving glances of a Father whose affections have birthed this "real" into my life....... One thing I have felt so deeply upon me is to be myself without apologies..... to stop hiding behind anything that would not be authentically who I am but to live fully forward without reservation or apology......

"He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him."

Isn't that the case... and I smile as I think upon the truths of that statement....... a friend so incredibly shared her heart with me recently when she spoke of things from my past that when she thinks upon them they make her sad and yet she knows that who I am today wouldn't exist without them..... Ah the beauty of the gospels.... He truly does use all things.....

And that is where I have felt led to walk in this evening's hours....

I don't take where I walk today for granted ......... valleys of death's shadow had so filled days gone by that now that I get to walk in the light of the dawning of the new day amazes me.... and I realize the delight of being real..... have I wished that I could have become it without all these things having happened to me... but of course but having walked those roads and now walking upon these road of becoming more and more real... I wouldn't change anything... not one thing.....