“Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
…Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear at my center words that say, 
“I have called you by name, from the very beginning.
You are mine and I am yours.
You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.
I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb.
I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace.
I look at you with infinite tenderness
and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child.
I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step.
Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch.
I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst.
I will not hide my face from you.
You know me as your own and I know you as my own.
You belong to me.
I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover and your spouse…
Yes, even your child…
Wherever you are I will be.
Nothing will separate us.
We are one.”
(H. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved)
———-

My dear readers.
Whatever may fill your Monday or your week…
Whatever doubts or fears or temptations lurk behind the hours…
Whatever struggles you encounter that challenge this most fundamental truth
And threaten to shake you to your very core…
Cling to this most unshakeable, unspeakable, unparalleled, Deepest of Deep Truths.
You are an Image Bearer.
Among whatever else fills your life, your mind, your spirit and heart,
Even if buried beneath the clutter and muck of years of fruitless searching and gathering…
God is in you.

Drink this in. Get your fill. Soak it up.
Rest here. Be comforted and healed and energized here.
Breathe it. Drown in it. Own it. Be it.
You are His Beloved, on you His favor rests.