Becoming Real

‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you…’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt… It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly... except to people who don’t understand.’

~Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Service isn't easy. Surrender isn't pretty. It means completely letting go of who you are, what you like, and what you want. His needs become your needs. His desires become your desires. His focus becomes your focus. You no longer think of your own limits, your wishes, or your own appearance because everything is about Him, centered around Him, and you are just a vessel for pleasing Him.

Slavery isn’t being prim and proper, or even whorish and wanton. Slavery is being simply a reflection of Him. So many things suggest that the slave is polite, made up prettily, and make this grand decision to submit. But that isn’t the truth, not in the least. True slavery occurs when she is lying at His feet, crying, begging, nose running, flesh on fire from His use, heart pounding in her ears, coughing from trying to breath, licking his boots. . . thanking Him for allowing her an opportunity just to serve Him. Having all concept of self stripped away, all images of her own vanity broken away from the core of who she is. . . simply becoming His.

As the Skin Horse explains, you have to go through the tough spots to become real, your focus is strictly on providing that service and not caring what becomes of you ‘hair rubbed off, eyes hanging loose, etc’. Once you are ‘real’, that is when you become truly beautiful. . . . to the One who owns you. And that’s what it is all about.