How do I know I am lovable? A lady brought it up at Wednesday night prayer service this past week. She said, “You are lovable; don’t let anyone tell you that you are not.”
I thanked her for it afterwards. Then out on the front steps I stumbled into a small discussion that included her again and some other loved ones. I brought it up again and she was very willing to repeat the premise. God made us and loves us and so we are lovable.
But I have another proof. Here’s how it flows. I look at other people and see that they are lovable. How do I know they are lovable? Because I see their beauty and value and I love them.
So I see others as lovable and I know I am like them. So I know I am too. I know other people should love me. They should take a look at me, listen to my voice, look in my face and love me. I should do the same for them. If we look at each other with true eyes, then we should see each other truly.
But if we look at each other with lens-caps over our eyes we will not see each other, we will not know of each other’s real existence, we will not know each other needs to love and be loved.
And it is certainly possible for us to have persons right in front of us, and many times for long periods of time, without our seeing them at all. We see an image of what we think that person to be. We see phantoms that reside in the air between our souls and the soul of the other. We even see ourselves as phantoms of the same sort. Because we look at ourselves in the mirrors of others and those mirrors are false because they are of our own making.
God, look at me with true eyes and tell me what you see.
3 Comments
I Love you.
Just a couple of things I thought about when reading your post: Why “should” I love others? And how do I know if I have “true” eyes? If I don’t feel love for others does that mean I don’t have love and therefore am not loved?
Jim, I had another friend ask the same thing – in the form of the question about art, music and such, “why does it always have to be about love?’
She was displaying her iconoclastic nature. She later admitted she would have to agree that love is the highest value of all values.
Are you trying to get me to be more clear or trying to get me to proof-text the thing?
How about this?
If you want to love more and better you will look for ways to do so.
If you want to see others more clearly you will clean your eyes and move closer to them so you can see them and they can see you better.
And whether or not you love others, you are loved – by God and other people. Lots of people love you and lots of people believe that you love them.