This week, I got a new tattoo. It’s ‘Beloved’, on my collarbone. It’s based on a verse in Song of Solomon 7:10 that goes “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is for me” (ESV). Another translation writes “I am my lover’s, and he claims me as his own” (NLV).
Intimacy has never been a strong point of mine, and the word Beloved struck me as far too intimate. Who was I, a filthy and undeserving sinner, to be called God’s beloved? Who was I to claim such a title or accolade, soaked in my shame and guilt, devoid of any righteousness or holiness? Who was this God who called me beloved? And why?
The answer, I am learning, is Jesus.
Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross we are beckoned near to the throne. Because of His blood covering us, right here right now, we are citizens of heaven. His righteousness and goodness is sufficient for us, and standing in His victory, we are victorious. Through no good works of our own and even in the depths of undeserving, we are God’s beloved. All of this I knew.
But I had misunderstood. I still considered myself unworthy because of my sin, and in need of change before I was worthy to call myself a Christ follower and be a part of His church. But His love doesn’t put those expectations and conditions on us. It doesn’t say ‘Be this/don’t be this and I will love you’ or ‘Stop doing this/do this and I will love you’. It says, ‘I see you in all you are, right now and in years to come, all you will ever be, the best and worst of your heart, and I died to bring that person home’.
His love is all about intimacy because it is all about closeness and openness and honesty. It is built upon truth and reality and doesn’t rely on projections and progress and future selves. His love knows our hearts and seeks them out, still, because Jesus has made the way. Sin was like a raging river between us and God, and Jesus built a bridge, brick by brick, with the blood He shed on the cross.
Because of that, and only that, we can call ourselves Beloved of the Living God.
The days 