Beloved & Blessed

Luke 3:22
…and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
"You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased."

It’s a beautiful moment in the Bible when God openly declares his great love for Jesus during his baptism. A part of me, when I read it thinks, “Would God say that about me? Would he say that I am his beloved and that he is pleased?”

If you’ve read The Shack, you may have noticed that in several points in the novel, Papa (God) makes reference to the fact that she is “especially fond” of someone in the book. The 2nd time it occurred, I questioned, “Surely the author is not trying to say that God has favorites?”

But haven’t we all wondered that at times? We wonder if God considers some more beloved than others. We wonder if, when hard times come, God may not love us as much as we thought he did. Or maybe we wonder if there is something we could do that would cause God to love us more. Maybe we fear that he’s not as pleased with us as he is with some others, therefore affecting his love for us.

“To the degree that those fears have a place in your life,
you neither believe I am good nor know
deep in your heart that I love you.
You sing about it; you talk about it,

but you don’t know it.”
~Jesus to Mack in The Shack

God’s love for us is separate from our actions. God’s love for us is not dependent on our actions, no more than our love diminishes when our own children behave in ways that disappoint and discourage us.

By the third time Papa states that she “is especially fond of someone” I realized that, given the opportunity, it’s a message that God is trying to convey to each and every one of us, not just a chosen few.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

~St. Augustine

In a beautiful little book by Henri Nouwen entitled, Life of the Beloved – Spiritual Living in a Secular World, Nouwen aims to get the same message across: “You are beloved by God,” and...

…“The voice that calls us the Beloved

wills us words to bless others
and reveal to them that they are no less.”
~Henri Nouwen

At the end of The Shack, Papa asks Mack to relay a message to a friend of his. “Tell Willie I am especially fond of him.” When we acknowledge the gift of our own belovedness, we can’t help but want to encourage others claim to their belovedness as well.

Beloved and blessed, that’s what you are.

After all, God is especially fond of you.