A bedrock statement.

"Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.'"

(Luke 3:21-22)

When I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to be involved in leadership training retreats. During my senior year, I was helping train the various class officers from Waiakea HS on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were upon Volcano Village, in the heart of the rain forest (and just outside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park!).

One of the activities involved giving people two choices, and they had to move to one side of the room or the other, based on their decision. The questions started out easy enough (Coke v. Pepsi, fast dancing v. slow dancing, one rose v. a dozen roses, etc.)... but eventually moved to much more emotionally challenging questions.

The one question that just wrecked me was this: Do you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your parents love you... or do you legitimately have some questions about their love? A handful of youth walked to the doubt side... and my heart broke. I remember weeping for them later, as I processed that experience with my own parents, thanking them for demonstrating their love over and over to me.

We all want to be loved. No, scratch that. We all NEED to be loved. We all want to know that our parents and families love us (hopefully, unconditionally!). But not everyone feels that way. And it still breaks my heart.

In the 3rd chapter of Luke's gospel, we get the story of Jesus' baptism. Immediately following that, God tells Jesus that he's His Son, the Beloved. What an empowering moment - just as Jesus is heading out to start his public ministry. It would be the foundation for everything Jesus would do later.

The more I read the Bible, the more I'm reminded that ALL of us are God's Beloved! We're not all Jesus (far from it!), but we're all beloved. Even if no one else ever says those words to us, God does! We were created in God's image as persons of infinite value & worth. May that truth be the bedrock for how we live out the rest of this day... and every day. AMEN.