Beloved of God

 An appropriate topic for Sunday.  I thought I'd give you the background on the first line of our mission statement.  It is quoted from the works of Henry Nouwen (my new best friend).  He uses the word "beloved" over and over when referring to his relationship to God, a word borrowed from the Gospels about Jesus' baptism and transfiguration when God said, "This is my beloved Son".  Jesus in turn told His disciples, "As the father has loved me, so I have loved you" (JN 15:9).  Therefore we, like Jesus, are God's beloveds.

Beloved of God.  The idea has been transformational for me.  When I hear the word beloved, I feel a warm, bright glow or even arms wrapped around me, holding and cherishing me.  Beloved is a word for mothers and babies, lovers and bosom friends.  Those are all relationships that I can picture and understand and to use the same word for the way that God relates to me and my family brings Him so close to us.

But to look at the word another way--"be loved".  A command.  As I think of my own spiritual journey, I recognize that allowing myself to truly "be loved" by another person or even God has been, at times, a difficult thing.  Often, there are many parts of me that I want to clean up or fix in order to be loved.  So many in fact, that the list is never ending.  Other times, I have way too much on my to do list to find the time to passively "be loved".  There have been times in recent years though when I have been incapable of any forward progress or of making any effort on my own behalf.  I have been at the proverbial bottom of the barrel.  And there, in the dark, is where I learned the most about being loved.  Because I have known love when I have been the least "worthy" of it--at least in the eyes of the world--I now trust and believe in it in a way I never did before.  So when I say that I am beloved today, right now, as I am, I am stating a fact.  Not just for me.  For all of us.

The application of all of this is that seeing Chris and our sweet girls as God's beloveds changes the way I interact with them.  They do not belong to me but they were entrusted to me as a great gift.  He expects me to take good care of them.  I do not always remember to treat them as beloveds but I want to.


So, the first line of the mission statement was my contribution.  Our other possible choices were "The Doyle Family is very blessed" and "The Doyle Family is grateful" both of which were also good.  We were looking for something up front that expressed our relationship to God.  The final selection* came down to the fact that I want to remind the girls often of how precious they are to God and to us.  I want to remember that my dear husband is first beloved of God and then, His gift to me.  I want to teach the girls to ask themselves how God's beloved would behave in a given situation.  I am hopeful that they will remind themselves that their family, friends and even strangers are also beloved of God and treat them accordingly.  When they falter, I hope they remember who they are and quickly return to God's embrace.

Lofty goals these but, to repeat an oft quoted phrase--with my family--my life's work--I always try to "shoot for the moon....if I miss, I'll be among the stars".

*and Chris got his pink gorilla so it was all good.


Happy New Week everyone!
Love, Alice