“You are my beloved, on you my favor rests.” That voice has always been there, but it seems that I was much more eager to listen to other, louder voices saying: “Prove that you are worth something, do something relevant, spectacular, or powerful, and then you will earn the love you so desire….”
As the beloved, we are God’s chosen ones. I mean that we have been seen by God from all eternity and seen as unique, special, precious beings…. From all eternity, long before you were born and became a part of history, you existed in God’s heart.
Long before your parents admired you or your friends acknowledged your gifts or your teachers, colleagues and employers encouraged you, you were already “chosen.” The eyes of love had seen you as precious, as of infinite beauty, as of eternal value…. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love. Our preciousness, uniqueness and individuality are not given to us by those who meet us in clock time— our brief chronological existence— but by the One who has chosen us with an everlasting love, a love that existed from all eternity and will last through all eternity….
Deep friendship is a calling forth of each other’s chosenness and a mutual affirmation of being precious in God’s eyes.
Henri Nouwen