The Velveteen Heart

The world is full of fakes, isn’t it? Photo filters create fake pictures. Social media promotes fake lives. We proclaim our hatred for “fake” — but do not realize that those fake things reveal our deepest longings.

The reality is:

We all want to look good.
We all want to enjoy new experiences.
We all want loving relationships.

But the road to that reality is really hard. We get tired. We look for short-cuts. We fail. We criticize others to make us feel better about ourselves. We filter out the things we don’t like and create our own fake reality.

Let’s take another approach – let’s do the hard things that lead us to real love and real life.

Have you ever read The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams? It’s a classic children’s book with deep truth about “becoming real.” Join me in the coming weeks, and we’ll let a child’s story and the light of Jesus show us the way to abundant life.

The opening scene of Williams’ classic story centers on a Christmas gift.

“There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid…On Christmas morning, when he sat edged in the top of the Boy’s stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming.”

There are a lot of things that begin “really splendid” in life, aren’t there? It doesn’t take long for the charming illusions of childhood to fade from sight. Williams portrayed it this way:

“…For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement…the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.”

Have you ever felt the Rabbit? Your dreams seemed to becoming true. Life looked quite splendid, and it all felt so good. And then you were sidelined, lost amidst the wrappings of life. I want to challenge you to hold onto the truths of Scripture that tell us “The end is better than the beginning” and God has “immeasurably more [for us] than we can imagine.”

What better time than the limbo week between Christmas and the New Year to start this journey toward the beautiful reality God has had in mind since before He spoke the first words of Creation?

The exciting truth we’ll explore in The Velveteen Heart series is that the crushing endings we experience in this life open the door for unimaginable, eternal treasures. Don’t miss out on this journey, sign up below.