Becoming Real

When I was completing my graduate program in counseling at Liberty University in Virginia, during the last few moments of my final course, my professor alluded to, and quoted from the wonderful children’s book, (and one which also deserves the attention of adults) “The Velveteen Rabbit,” (by Margery Williams)

“What is REAL?”

asked the toy Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room.

“Do it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“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.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. But once you are Real, you never want to be not Real again.”

 

I think this is, in some ways, a rather adequate description of the Discipline of our Life in Christ. (Though I would of necessity exchange the phrase, “when a child loves you for a long time” with “since our Father in heaven loves you, and you choose to live in a committed, loving relationship with Him… it is only then that you become… Real.”)

The Discipline of Resurrection demands that we be real. That we be genuine. That we make our lives count for something. That we keep the Eternal ever before us.

The Discipline of our Life in Christ provides us a whole new perspective, a whole new maturity, a whole new mission, a whole new relationship, and

… a whole new obligation.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 14 w/ excerpt from "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams. Volumes 1-15, Copyright 2015.

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