Being the Beloved

In the epilogue of Nouwen's book - The Life of the Beloved - Henri discusses his friend Fred's comments to the effect that he does not understand the essence and mindset of the secular person. Fred said that to address he and his friends, he would need to discuss questions like "Who is God?" and "Do I need God to be a good person?", etc., etc. However, I have to say that I cannot follow Fred's thinking. He did, in fact, ask for the very thing that Henri delivered. Fred asked Henri to "Speak to us about a vision larger than our changing perspectives and about a voice deeper than the clamorings of our mass media. Speak to us about something or someone greater than ourselves. Speak to us about...God."

In Henri's letter, which is now the book mentioned above, he discusses the very essence of the human experience, that of loving and being loved. It is the last portion - being loved - that I want to discuss here.

God considers each of us to be His beloved. It is difficult to wrap my mind around this except that I have a couple of earthly examples that I can draw metaphors from. First, to say that I am "the beloved" means that I am "being loved" by God in the sense of the present time and into the infinite future. The true immensity of being loved by God, though, is only found in the context of a correct understanding of my brokenness. To understand this brokenness is to understand how many opportunities God has given me to answer the question, "Do you love me?" and my answer, through my actions, is to say "No".

To understand this, then, I have to bring it home to roost in my day-to-day life. I have to think of what my emotions might be if my wife were ever to answer "No" to my query of her love for me. Even though she may have previously answered a thousand times "Yes", this one "No" would tear me apart. I know that I would begin to question my love and commitment, if for no other reason than I would be having an emotional - and maybe even justified - response to my being rejected.

I cannot begin to imagine how many times I have, in like kind, rejected God and His love. Further, God is love, so the rejection of this love must grieve Him greatly! However, he continues to pour himself out to me in ways that are well beyond my understanding.

We know that rejection is a daily occurence in our world, but God's love continues to be offered to each of us. Therefore, this basic understanding is primary and fundamental to our existence.

The other way that I understand God's love is to try to create an anology through my relationship and love for my daughter. I've heard it said before, and it may be a cliche, but I cannot imagine a time when my daughter could do something that would keep me from loving her. I believe that would include a rejection of my love for her.

I am fallible, though, and God is not. I sin and my love is imperfect, but God is consistent and is always love. It is his very nature. So while my metaphor helps me understand God's love for me, it obviously falls short in describing how God loves me.

We are the beloved of God and this is the foundation of all human experience. We are "being loved" even now, no matter what we have done or our plans are to reject him. It is now our job to reflect God's love to the world through the simple gift of our lives for the sake of the world.