Becoming Real

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
-from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

It's not all cuddles, hearts and flowers. Some days being real hurts. It's aching all down the sides from struggling to breath on a bad asthma day. Or burning dinner - I'm sure the neighbors could smell it. Real gets grouchy, tired, and doesn't look like a model in a magazine.

Real clothes get stained, sometimes from the cuddles of grimy, beloved people and pets. Real houses look "lived in" and sometimes the dusting is done days late because there are real people who need us more than things. Real couples argue sometimes and drive each other crazy - and then bring each other back together even more in love than before. Real people are made in the image of God but are fallen in sin and would perish were it not for grace. And it is from this grace that we learn what real truly means. Real is loved.
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This was written in five minutes with no editing for Five Minute Fridays over at The Gypsy Mama.