Just as a follow up to an earlier post about learning what it means to love, God has placed a particular friend of mine on my heart and this is not just a slight nudging but I think a very intense sort of urge that I’m not supposed to ignore but rather embrace and learn from or definitely wait on and see exactly what God will teach me from it. I essentially have a friend that is causing my heart to break. I can’t exactly describe her life and what is my basis for such a strong emotion because I don’t want to have her lose her confidence in me, but will instead describe an almost radically new feeling that has begun to emerge in my life: a heart breaking for one who has rejected love of themself.
Dear friend,
Do you not know that you are precious? Don’t you know that you are talented and beautiful; intelligent and witty; warm and wise? You are all of these things and more because Jesus has given you such worth when he came down from heaven to redeem all that was wounded by sin. You have been told many lies throughout your life. Many many many lies. You have been told that what was opposite of you was beautiful. You were compared to this “smarter” person, that “more athletic” person. You were told that your words were not important; that your opinions didn’t matter. You looked at yourself in the mirror and said that the person looking back wasn’t good enough. There was something weird and horribly different about the person staring back; it was someone that was an enemy rather than a friend. I bumped into you as you stumbled through life believing all of these. I found that you had such spirit and passion, such beauty and so soo soo many talents. I learned about your struggles and prayed that God would take you into his arms and remind you of how is your bridegroom coming to redeem and sacrifice himself for you, his bride. He is your friend, your faithful father who sees you as precious and fragile, yet also strong and able. He has tried to woo you with the stars that dot the sky, with kisses from raindrops, and great big hugs from flakes of snow. He uses the wind to play with your hair and sunsets to paint you a portrait of his love. My heart breaks because no matter how many times you have heard all of this, you still will not let it transform your life. The pain, it remains in you. The lies, they remain deep inside causing you to wonder about your significance… if you have significance. May God be with you tonight. Oh how I want you to be reminded of God’s love and I want you to let His love come in. It’s the first time that I’ve felt such a pain in my heart for someone because I think the second hardest thing after a person not knowing about Jesus’ perfect love is a person knowing about it, but not loving themselves enough to let Him come into their heart. The Lord is good and his mercy endures forever. May He give you the faith to know that all things will be made beautiful and whole in His time.
I Love you so much.
Because He reigns,
Jennifer
