Beloved

Romans 13:8-11

King James Version (KJV)

⁸ Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
⁹ For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
¹⁰ Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
¹¹ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
 

     Many years ago, a young girl wandered aimlessly in a land called Lost.  She was searching for her family that she did not know.  At night she hid in the shadows and by day she searched.  Many times she was attacked and beaten by the Dark Men, a gang of wayward souls.  Every time she felt she could go on no longer, someone would always come to her with food and water, they would bathe her, provide her clean clothes and send her back on her way.  The years went by and her determination came and went with them.  She grew tired and weary and unsure about her desire to find her family.  Maybe she was not meant to be loved.     As she wandered through the darkness, late one night she fell into a pit where she would stay for some time.  It was too deep to climb out on her own.  Maybe her life had no meaning.  Maybe this was where she would go to sleep and never wake up to wander again.  Years ago she had heard of a King in a land called Peace.  This King loved His people beyond reason.  He gave them things they had not earned and always made sure they were fed and cared for.  As she slept one night, near starvation, she dreamed of the land of Peace.  She saw the King in her dream and she asked Him if He was real to send some one for her.  She explained that she was lost searching for her family and had fallen in the pit and was about to die.  In her dream the King touched her cheek gently and said, "I will never leave you."
     She woke the next morning hungrier and more tired, but found herself smiling from the dream she remembered.  As she closed her eyes and thought about the King's promise, she heard a voice.  She opened her eyes and looked up and there on the edge of the pit was a shepherd boy.  He was facing away from her, totally unaware of her presence.  At first she couldn't speak, she stared, wondering if this boy had been sent by the King she had seen in her dream.  She barely pushed her voice from her lips, "Will you help me?"
     He spun around to look down at her, "How did you end up in there?"
     "It was dark and I couldn't see where I was going."
     "You will not survive down there you silly girl.  Let me help you out and I will take you to my Father and He will care for you."  He threw down a rope, but instead of waiting for her to climb out, he climbed down into the pit and carried her out.  He led her to the creek to bathe while he prepared a meal for her over the fire.  As she let the water take the dirt from her body she wondered about this boy's father.  She had been hoping for the King, but maybe she was not worthy. 
     She liked the shepherd boy instantly.  He was funny and he was kind.  His words were not harsh, like the Dark Men and she found herself trusting him as she felt safe.  She followed him with only an occasional wave of fear that maybe this was a trick.  The fear that maybe he was one of the Dark Men would grip her throat, but his kindness would free her again. 
      After many days of following him the shepherd boy brought her into a land so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes.  He pointed to a castle far in the distance and said, "There, there is my Father's house.  He will be so happy to see you.  He will adopt you and love you like He did me.  I had fallen in a pit when He found me."  The boy stood still, looking off toward the castle and tears filled his eyes as he remembered and told her about the day the King himself had reached down and lifted him out of his pit.
     "Your Father is a King?"
     "Yes.  He is your Father too.  He adopts anyone who comes to Him and asks with an honest heart.  He loves each one as much as the others.  He will change your life and make it better.  He made me a shepherd and I watch over many of His sheep."
     She was afraid.  She felt that if the King saw who she really was, He wouldn't want her.  She had nothing to offer Him.  She thought many times of turning around as she followed the shepherd boy toward the castle, but something kept drawing her so she moved forward.  When they arrived at the castle, the shepherd boy seemed to walk faster, excited to see his Father, but she found herself holding back.  When he disappeared around the corner she panicked.  She slowly peered around the wall to see the shepherd boy standing in front of the King.  The King was so beautiful it took her breath away.  She could only stare as she recognized Him from her dream.
     When the shepherd boy noticed she was no longer following, he waved at her to come closer, "He want's to talk with you."
     She shook her head "no" in fear.  He was too magnificent for her to approach.  She wanted to turn and run, but something held her there. 
     The King handed the shepherd boy a box and he brought it to the girl, "Here, our Father wants you to have this.  He has many other gifts for you.  He told me He adopted you many years ago, but you ran off.  He has forgiven you and wants to start over new, with a clean slate."
     "Okay, but I am too afraid to go near Him.  He is so big and beautiful and I am so dirty."
     "When you are ready I will take you to Him."
     The shepherd boy took the girl to the room where she would stay.  Each day she would get a little closer to the King, but she always kept a safe distance.  The King would write things on little pieces of paper and hand them to the shepherd boy and he would give them to the girl.  The messages were all about how much he loved her and wanted her to stay with Him and be His daughter.  He promised to never leave her.  She would take each note and hide it away in the box He had given her the day she arrived.  The shepherd boy called the notes, The Truth. 
     One day, as the girl came around the corner of the King's throne room she saw the shepherd boy talking with their Father.  When he noticed her, he got down on one knee and motioned for her to come closer.  "It's safe.  He wants to show you how much He loves you.  Come closer."
     She decided to risk it.  She began meeting with the King everyday.  He would tell her things that explained her past and who she was.  He asked her one day what her name was and she began to cry.  "I don't know who I am.  All I know is that I was lost and it was dark and people hurt me.  All I ever wanted was a family.  All I wanted was to come home.  I just never knew where home was."
     The King reached down and took her face in His big hands, "You are home with Me and I will call you, Beloved.  That is who you are and it will never change."
     They spent every day together.  She learned to laugh.  She learned she could tell the King, her Father anything on her mind.  He taught her many things.  Eventually she worked up the courage to climb into His lap and He rocked her for hours while she let go of the tears she had been holding onto for many years. 
     The relationship she had with the shepherd boy changed.  She saw him less and less.  When they did see each other, anger rose up in both of them.  No matter how they tried, they seemed to only hurt each other.  He spent many hours in the fields with sheep and less and less time with the King.  When He did come to the castle he only talked with the King about his sheep and listed all the good things he was doing in the fields.  As, Beloved sat in the King's lap she wondered why the shepherd boy would never join her.  He seemed angrier every time she saw him. 
     One day when she was talking with the King, she asked, "Why is the shepherd boy not happy?  Did I do something wrong?  I don't understand why we get so angry at each other."
     The King's eyes filled with tears.  "He has never sat in my lap.  He gets very close to me, but he doesn't know it's okay.  I invite him, but he is afraid."
     "Why is he afraid?"
     "Because long ago when he was very young there was a group of boys who were very mean to him.  They used to call him names.  They were jealous of his gifts.  He used to fight often, trying to prove his strength.  He was not born to fight.  I gave him wisdom, compassion, empathy, and many other gifts, but he still feels unworthy because those names the boys called him scarred his soul.  He protects that part and won't let me touch it."
     "I didn't know he was so wounded."
     "Yes.  He keeps himself so busy with his flock that he doesn't take the time to eat and rest like he should.  I have sent a messenger many times inviting him to come, sit in my lap and let me heal that deepest wound, but he always has a reason why he can't come.  It's always a wounded sheep, a lost shepherd or a wolf he is fighting off that keeps him from fully joining me."
     "That's sad."  The King wiped her tears from her face and began to rock her, but on her shoulder, she felt the warmth of her Father's tears falling for the shepherd boy. 

     Time went by and Beloved struggled as the Father showed her more and more Truth, but she knew she was healing so she moved forward.  When the shepherd boy would come to the castle to report to the King all he was doing, she avoided him.  Occasionally they would see each other and it would usually end with her screaming at him.  He would tell her that she was doing things wrong, that he knew the Father longer than she did and he knew the ways to talk with Him and spend time with Him.  The shepherd boy rarely said kind words anymore and on top of it, she caught him flirting with the maidens in the garden.  She knew the King would not be pleased, because he had told the shepherd boy not to even step into the garden.  Beloved didn't tell the king what the shepherd boy was doing, because her behavior would not please Him either.  For she had been flirting with the shepherd boy.  She also knew that he was being mean to the sheep.  He would yell at them and shove them and then feel bad.  Because he felt so bad after, no one wanted to tell the King.  The turmoil she was in kept her from climbing into the King's lap and soon she was interacting with the King like the shepherd boy.  She would only talk with Him about other's behavior and the things she wanted to do. 
     One day the king called for her.  He invited her to sit on his lap and she wanted to desperately, but she was afraid.  She was tired of the secrets and hurting from the fights with the shepherd boy.  She finally surrendered and climbed into His lap.  "I've been bad.  I can't stop fighting with the shepherd boy and I think he hates me now.  He yelled at me like never before and I was scared."
     "I know.  I know everything that has happened between you.  I know your pain and I know his and I love you both today as much as I did the day you each came to me.  Now, go and get the box of Truth I gave to you."
     Beloved ran to her room and got the box.  The tears came with the fear that the Father was going to take it from her.  She was afraid He would send her back out into the Land of the Lost and she would never know the feeling of sitting in His lap again.  When she returned to the King with the box she stood at His feet and held it out to Him.  He took it from her and set it down on the arm of His chair.  Then he reached down and picked her up and set her in His lap.  
     "I want you to go to the shepherd boy.  You will go to the field where he tends the sheep."
     She burst into tears.  "Am I not allowed to live in the castle any longer?  Do I have to go out and live with the mean shepherd boy?"
     "No.  You will always be welcome in the castle as long as it is where you choose to live.  But, the shepherd boy is in trouble and I have sent many messages to him, calling him to come back to me so we can heal the situation, but he only send messages back avoiding the topics I want to discuss."
     "I am afraid of him.  I don't want to see him.  I am just a young girl, how can I be of any help to you?"
     "I chose you because you are like him.  Your temper runs the same, because your hurt is the same.  You share weaknesses and strength.  You see the good and the bad in each other.  It is through a person of the same wounding that the healing begins.  That is why I sent him to get you out of the pit."
     "You sent him?" 
     "Of course I sent him, just like I am sending you to him now.  He is your brother.  You are his sister."
     "I don't know what to do.  I don't know what to say."  The fear was rising up in her and she felt overwhelmed and out of control.  "I am in no position to discipline the shepherd boy.  I am as guilty of bad behavior as him.  I don't understand.  Did you forget who I am?"
     "Did you forget who I Am?  I see you forgot who you are.  You are my Beloved.  The nights in the darkness, the attacks of the Dark Men have prepared you.  It is the Dark Men who are tormenting the shepherd boy.  He doesn't see them.  They come in the night and tempt him.  They come by day and stir up his flock.  He believes he is the bad one, so he puffs out his chest and works hard to prove he is not.  He cannot prove what he does not know.  He should have come to me long ago.  I see what he is doing.  There is nothing he can hide.  As he found you in your last day in the pit with death finding it's way to you, you will find him.  Though he does not realize how close to death he is.  I cannot allow him to shepherd any longer in this way.  He has to be brought back to the castle, climb into my lap and confess, so that I can heal his wounds.  You must bring him to Me."
     "But we have been fighting.  How in the world would I ever convince him to follow me back here to the castle?"
     The King reached over and picked up the box of Truths.  He lifted the lid to show Beloved that the Truths had been turned to Living Water.  "Beloved, I want you to wash his feet with the Truth as he did yours when you were brought from the pit.  He will only follow you if you show him love.  Anger and hate will always turn others away."
     "I can't.  I don't know how."
     "Do you love me?"
     "Yes, and I want to obey you no matter what.  I... I want... I will."
     "He might hurt you, he may be angry Beloved, but he cannot take your life.  Your life belongs to me.  You must walk in love."
     "Okay.  I will.  I am his friend and I do love him."  She felt sick and her hands trembled.  She cuddled up to Him and He wiped the fear from her. 
     "I enjoy our time together as much as you, but nothing good is done for the Kingdom unless you step out.  Beloved, I go with you and I can hear your voice when you cry out to me.  If you listen, you will hear mine and I will instruct you."
     "Why don't you send someone who is bigger and wiser?"
     "He knows your heart.  He knows you.  You both care deeply for each other or the anger wouldn't get so big."
     "Are you going to take his sheep from him and not allow him to be a shepherd anymore?"
     "If I have to, but it is his choice."
     "Why do you give him a choice?"
     "I will not force him to love me and trust me or it wouldn't be real."
     "What will you do to him?"
     "He is like a withering tree, no longer producing fruit, barely any green left on him and I have placed a rain cloud above him that will bring life back into him and he will grow bigger and stronger than he ever was.  I will give him flocks he did not earn.  But, their is a web of lies reaching up from the ground that the Dark Men have planted around him and they go clear up to that cloud and hold it hostage.  Once you wash his feet in the Truth and he rises up to walk in it, the lies will be destroyed and the favor will rain down on my shepherd boy."
     "You love him don't you Father?"
     "Very much.  Now you must go.  The Dark Men will try to stop you, but you know them and in the land of Peace you have authority over them.  You tell them to go in the name of the most High King and they will have no choice but to leave."
     Beloved scrambled down off her Papa's lap and gathered up the box.  As she headed for the door, she hesitated and slowly turned back to look at the Father.  "What is the shepherd boy's name?"
     "He is my Beloved also."
     "What do I do if the Dark Men try to take him with them?"
     Just then a loud clap of thunder startled her and she looked toward the door in fear.  When she turned her attention back to the King she saw anger in His eyes for the first time and in a booming voice He said, "You tell them, the shepherd is MINE."
                     to be continued


Isaiah 9:4-5

New International Version (NIV)

4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.