Who am I . . . Really?

This morning I met a girlfriend at the coffee shop. The room seemed to fill with sunshine when she stepped in the doorway. Two men turned and watched her walk to my table. I smiled to myself and
felt pretty by association.

As we talked about life and kids and work, her laughter rang around us like a lilting melody. I wondered how she was consistently so full of life and cheerful. As if she heard the unspoken question, she began to talk about the transforming work of Christ in her life.

Her eyes danced. “There is nothing I can do to make him love me more. He loves me. He just does. I’m his princess. I don’t have to try to be. I just am.”

Sounds like a perfectly put-together life. Right?

She sipped her cappuccino, then continued. “I choose to walk in that truth rather than get bogged down in all the other.”

The other, I wondered. What weights was this radiant person deliberately throwing off? Fortunately, she told me.

Due to, according to her, some mistakes in her youth and victimization by others, she had more than one divorce behind her and children who were confused as to who they were. She said, “As a child, I never dreamed that would happen. I struggle with shame and guilt.”

I looked into those clear, dark eyes. Shame and guilt did not fit in the picture.

 Her voice softened. “The Lord gave his life to provide an abundant, rich, and overflowing one for me. Every day, I can realize I am the Lord’s precious one or be crushed under the lies the devil would heap on me. I choose to believe the truth.”

Ahh. Her secret. She knows who she is. A precious one.

As I reflected on her words, I glanced at a picture of my new granddaughter. She came much later than the rest of the kids, and we are all silly over her. Could any of us love her more?  That doesn’t bear considering.

I pray we can see ourselves through the Lord’s eyes. His treasured ones. Just like we are this minute.

Jason Gray must have been pondering this when he wrote his insightful lyrics.

Tell me, once again

Who I am to you, who I am to you

Tell me, lest I forget

Who I am to you, that I belong to you

If I’m your beloved, can you help me believe it?