Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings… – Psalm 17, WEB
We can spend our lives trying to please people and trying to deserve their love. We can get used to this way of living and loving that we don’t know how to receive love anymore. Love that pursues us. Love that doesn’t ask anything from us except that we receive it with trust and open arms.
Someone Loves Me Now
I am used to loving
used to giving
used to doing things
for the one I love.
But I have yet to be used
to being loved
to being given everything
by the one who loves me.
How can I ever get used
to receiving so much love?
To being the apple of his eye?
When can I ever get used
to being still, being me,
being happy
even though I know
I do not deserve
all that he is giving me?
But I have to get used to love,
used to his kisses,
used to his warm embrace.
I am not the one
who decides now
how things must happen.
I am not the one
who does everything anymore.
There is someone now
who is there for me,
who sees me,
and who will take care
of all my tomorrows
just as much
as he takes good care of me
today.
Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: ‘These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.”– Henri J.M. Nouwen