In our day and age, Valentine’s Day comes with a mixture of feelings and expectations. For some people, Valentine’s Day is a happy reminder of how loved they are and how much love they have to share with those around them. For others, this day comes with feelings of unworthiness and self-doubt: “Do I have enough friends? Am I worthy of being loved? Is true love real and will I ever find it?”
Sometimes, we turn to the wrong places for signs of approval and affirmation. We count how many greeting cards, chocolates, flowers, and stuffed animals we received this year and we use that as a measure of how loved and appreciated we are. With all the fuss and excitement, we lose sense of what real love is and where our true identity lies.
In the inspiring storybook The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams shares a heartening message fitting to this and every season of our lives. When he looks at the other toys in the nursery, the Rabbit wonders if being real means having particular features like a buzzer or engine.
“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.” [1]
How many times do we let ourselves be convinced that we are not enough, that we need special talents and gadgets to be valuable? We often spend so much time comparing ourselves to others and seeking their approval that we lose sight of where our true worth rests. We wish we could be different, we wish we could be more, we long to become real. And that leaves us beseeching love from those around us.
Our lives are transformed when we discover one of the greatest truths of our Faith. We are real simply because we were created in the image and likeness of the Creator who loved us into being. We exist because He lovingly thought us into existence. Scripture says our God rejoices over His people with gladness. He sings joyfully because of you! [2] His love makes us real in every sense of the word.
The good news is God desires to show His love for us every single day. He continuously seeks opportunities to encounter us and show us our worth. And He wants us to help others experience the same.
Every time you share your story of encountering Jesus, you help others discover their real identity in Christ. May we be like the Skin Horse who makes the Velveteen Rabbit realize where his realness lies: in receiving the unconditional, everlasting love of the One who created us to bring joy.
Valentine’s Day comes once a year—that’s probably a good thing for our budget. Yet, the opportunities to show people how much God loves them—how real they are in His eyes—come every day. This is part of our mission in the world, and it’s free!
[1] Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit, or, How toys become real (Doubleday, 5).
[2] See Zephaniah 3:17.
