BEING LOVED MEANS BEING CHOSEN

Saturday, April 18, 2009

The following is from a book called The Whisper Test which I first read in John Ortberg's book, Love Beyond Reason. I am repeating this today because it is one of my favorite stories.

I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.

There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored--Mrs Leonard by name. She was short, round, happy--a sparkling lady.

Annually we had a hearing test..Mrs Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back--things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?" I waited there for those words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, "I wish you were my little girl."

Love confers a kind of choseness on the one who is loved.