Who we are: the Beloved

 

·         What we do

·         What we have

·         What others say about us.

Generally speaking we build our identity around some combination of these. Just stop and think about it for a minute or two.  It’s true isn’t it?   These express important parts of what it means to be human and to have a sense of purpose and accomplishment in life.   We naturally want to be productive and creative, to do stuff and not just waste time.  We also want to accumulate a measure of financial and physical security and enjoy things that we own.  And we are social creatures who are made for relationships and the giving and receiving of validation and appreciation.

It’s when we consider what happens when we lose these three things that we grasp the significance of them.   Let’s think about refugees.  I was watching Simon Reeves and was very moved, as he was moved, by his encounters with Syrian refugees arriving on the island of Lesbos.  There was a family of 4, dad was a professional cameraman who had the same job as the man filming the program, but was now stepping into Europe with no job or profession.  They owned nothing now except the clothes they wore and a mobile phone, shelter less and extremely vulnerable.  And they knew nobody where they were going - they had had to leave their entire social world behind. No wonder Simon and then the family were moved to tears as he wished them good luck.

During this last year many people have either lost their jobs or are restricted in what they are able to do.  We have also lost much of our social connections too, and of course some unfortunate folk have also had to lose some of things they have through loss in income.

As Christians though, we would say that these are not very reliable things to build our identity on anyway. We can become defined by work, obsessed with what we own and become addicted to the opinions of others.   Building an identity can be a bit like how William Faulkner described writing a novel:  trying to build a hen coop in the middle of a hurricane, you just grab what you can and nail it down.   

The bible says that our foremost identity is as loved children of God.   Before we are anything else, you and I are the Beloved.   It is out of this love that we can live through our frailties and uncertainties, our attempts to find security and meaning and put them in their proper place. What we do and have are reframed as gifts and what others think of us becomes mutual story building, very provisional and never, never a final word.

Here are some words from the Old Testament

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
    taking them by the arms;
but they did not realise
    it was I who healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
    with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
    a little child to the cheek,
    and I bent down to feed them.  Hosea 11

These are very intimate and tender words, soothing our fears and calming our restless souls. Can we live out of this deepest of all loves, a love that loved us even before we were born and accepts us as we are? 

¹ My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
² But I have calmed and quietened myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

³ Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and for evermore.   Psalm 131.