CowPi Journal

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

The only toy that was kind to the Rabbit was the Skin Horse. The Skin Horse had lived in the nursery longer than any of the others, and he was very wise.

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens when a child loves you. It takes a long time. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, you get loose in the joints, and very shabby.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse. “But when you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

The Rabbit sighed. He longed to become Real, and yet the idea of growing shabby was rather sad. He wished that he could become Real without uncomfortable things happening to him.

— from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
      (via crazyacres)

“Real isn’t how you are made.” Becoming Real is about transformation.

“It’s a thing that happens when…” you are loved by others, and you love them. It is something you cannot do by yourself!

“It takes a long time.” And sometimes, it hurts.

“But when you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.” Both the cup of sorrow and the cup of joy pour into your cup of life.

If we could only become “Real without uncomfortable things happening” to us. Isn’t that our fear with God?