{Be Real} Let Love In

Unconditional love is a powerful force, like the sea. Like waves receding away from shore, it always moves to draw us into itself. But sometimes, it’s easier to stand on the edge of the shore, not sure if we’re in awe or terrified.

I know that feeling. As a young girl, I was shy, timid. For many years, I stood in the shadow of other people, hoping not to be noticed. Until I realized I desperately needed to be.

On the outside, I probably was the most loved girl and woman you have ever seen. My father adored me, always told me I was beautiful. My mom always showered me with a love that, like the ocean, knocked me to the ground and left me wondering, “Do I really deserve this?”

Through her love, I have seen what love truly is. Selfless, generous. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she gets up every day and asks herself what would make me breathe easier. And she does it. Everything she has, she would give to me in a heartbeat. (Well, maybe there are a few necklaces she wants to keep for herself!) Every bit of wisdom that she’s learned, she wants to pass onto me. She gives me truth, not painted realities, and shows me her own vulnerabilities and insecurities.

I still wonder to this day what I did to receive a love like hers. And the truth, the kind that stills the heart and leaves me speechless, is absolutely nothing.

I was born. That’s it. She had always wanted a daughter, and she welled up all the love that she had ever wanted to give to someone who was flesh of her flesh. And that person was me.

It’s a picture of how we are as God’s children. We are His daughters, and we are heirs to a heavenly inheritance. Everything that is our Father’s is ours. And we are the recipients of the kind of sacrificial love that died for us, the kind of grace that can only sweep over our hearts and consume us like an ocean wave.

Needless to say, it’s hard to understand. It’s hard to understand how you don’t have to do something to deserve love. And for many years, I just didn’t know how to take in love from my mother, because I didn’t love myself. I couldn’t understand how someone so imperfect could be loved so immensely.

When you don’t love yourself, we wall off pieces of our hearts from others. People can try and pierce our walls, but we keep adding bricks. The chasm between our hearts and theirs widens. The very thing we so desperately want, human connection, is the one thing we keep ourselves from. Sometimes it’s easier to hide from love, than to let it in.

And we don’t just hide, wall off, and deflect human love – we do it to God, too. If we can reject human love, which is not perfect, it becomes even easier to reject and hide from unconditional heavenly love.

Why do we hide, anyway?

It all started in the garden, with Adam and Eve. They sinned against God, became aware that they were naked, vulnerable, and exposed – so they hid.

Hiding usually stems from some kind of shame. We are ashamed of our past, of who we are, of who we are not. And sometimes, all of these at once.

Shame lives in shadows. And the only way to combat shame is to bring it into the light. This is the work God asks for us to do. Bring our darkness into His light.

I found the song “Out of Hiding” by Steffany Greztinger this summer – and these are the words your Father sings over you:

Come out of hiding,
You’re safe here with me.
There’s no need to cover what I already see…
Just throw off your fears and come running to me…
And know as you run,
that what hindered love
will only become part of the story.

We all feel shame somehow, some way, and have things about ourselves we don’t think are lovely. We have cracks in our hearts.

But God, in His tenderness and lovingkindness, asks us to let His love right in to our cracks. Those places that will become part of your love story with Him. He wants to pour in His love there and show you He loves those things about you that you don’t want to look at.

And it is right there that you will step into a new freedom, and into the expanse of receiving His love, and love from other flawed, imperfect people.

Receiving love is a gift we give ourselves, but it’s a gift we give others, too.

When we let them love us, it heals something in them. When they offer love to us and we accept it, we validate who they are. We validate that they have something genuinely important to give to the world.

And when we receive that love for ourselves, we fill our cup so we can overflow onto other people.

I’m sure you know this, girls, but we can only love to the extent that we let love in.

This isn’t an easy post today, it’s a dig deep, plunge into the depths kind of post. But just remember, girls, that you are safe there.

“Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there.
If I take the wings of morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And your right hand shall hold me.”

– Psalm 139:9-10

Your Heavenly father’s loving arms are embracing you today – your cracks, your flaws, your beauty – and He loves every part of you. Every. Single. Part.

I pray that every day, you can re-make the choice to open your heart to the beauty of His love, and the imperfect love of the people He has given to you. When we let love in, it will change us from the inside out.

As we let ourselves be loved, we can rest and know that it’s not about our earning or deserving. We can drown ourselves in something bigger, the ocean of His grace. We have the greatest gift we could ever ask for, a Heavenly Father and Savior who will keep pouring His love until we receive it, and love Him in return, from now until eternity.

* All photographs courtesy of the amazing Tiffany Farley