no longer a chestnut bur.

Last night I finished Part II of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.  I had never read it before taking my Children's Literature course in my final semester.  It is so witty and beautiful and heartwarming and charming and clever and well-written and altogether delightful.  I know now why it remains a classic of children's literature.

One quote that caught my attention while reading last night was the following made by Meg to Jo:

You are like a chestnut bur, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it.  Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough bur will fall off. (397) 

 This short truth about love reminded me of what God says in Ezekiel 11: 19-20.

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.  They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Real love takes something worthless and gives it worth.  Real love finds the lost.  Real love rescues those who are without hope of being saved.  Love sees what no one else sees and dares to care when no one else can.

God is real love.  How often I forget that it was God who saw me as I was.  He reached out and removed the rough bur from my exterior; He cut out my heart of stone.  He saw me as me, who I am deep inside, when know one else did.  He found me where I was.  He rescued me from disobedience and darkness and emptiness and my selfish self.

He dared to love me.  He even went so far as to die in my place.  Why?  Because He loves me and desires for me to be with Him.

He saw me as a chestnut bur, and He loved me as a chestnut bur.  Even though my heart was of stone, His love was able to penetrate the walls that I put up around me.

Because of His love, His real and unfailing and unconditional love, I am no longer a chestnut bur.  I am a soft, sweet kernel with a heart of flesh.  Because of His love, my desire is for Him.  I am His.  And REAL LOVE is my God.