DEAR ONE:

You don't have to be anything for Me except what you are, my child. You are Mine. Everything you are and everything you are not. Give me your best, yes, but don't stop there. Give Me your worst, as well. I am big enough to handle both.

RELAX, my child. You are loved just because you are. I am the One who knows you best and also the One who loves you most.

You were loved from eternity past, even before I brought you to life in your mother's womb. All the days ordained for you were written in My book before one of them came to be.

You will be loved until eternity future when I will carry you across the threshold of New Jerusalem, as my Bride. I will wipe away your tears, and we will sit down to dinner, and you won't have to worry about what you are wearing.

You will take freely of My love and we will be together, home at last.

So, hand over all those long lists of 'I should be's'. You should be MINE. That is enough. You are MINE. That is enough!

I didn't create you to be perfect, I created you to be MY own.

This means you can put aside those high and lofty standards for yourself. Only one person met those standards: My only Son, Jesus Christ. You are not perfect, but HE is. When I look at you, you are wearing His perfection- His righteous robes. So, stop worrying about all you are not. Relax in all My Son is for you. I can bear your imperfections because I see Him in you, even as a parent is imagined in a newborn.

And, as for Eden, don't try to re-create it. Perfection was intended for the Garden, but I closed its gates long ago. Boarded it up and sealed it away until another day, another time. You must recall Paradise now and then to be reminded of Holiness, but you get yourself into trouble when you pretend you still live there.

Remember, you are part of a flawed world. This is what My Love is all about- to love you in your flawed condition. Because I am rich in love, I made you alive while you were still dead.

Some people will die for good people. I died for you before you were good- while you were still a sinner. It was not My way to ask you to be loving before I could love you. And, it is not My way to ask you to be loving in order for Me to continue loving you.

Your world makes promises based on how ell you respond. I love you regardless of your response. Your world changes people, then loves them. I love you first, and along the way, because you are loved, you are changed.

So, take your mind off of yourself. It is the trademark of lovers to gaze, not inwardly at themselves, but outwardly toward each other. As you focus on Me, you will wonder at My love rather than worry about your own. You will be so busy learning about Me that you won't have time to ask how you are doing. You will be so filled with a sense of My love for you, that you will forget self-critiques. Love is what happens when you look away from yourself and toward another.

Stop trying to be perfect in order to deserve My love. You will never be 'enough' of anything, anyway. I do not want your worth, your efforts, your gifts and credentials and produce. I want you simply because you are you.

If, tomorrow, you should become anything other that what you are today, still I would want you. If you were in a terrible fire and burned beyond recognition, if you contracted a dread disease and became deaf and dumb, if you could not lift a finger to love anymore, still I would want you.

My love is for you, not for what you are. And, I understand, My child, that you do not return perfect love. I know about this flawed creation of Mine. I did not will it to be flawed, but I will allow it for a while.

I must ask you to do the same- allow it for a while. It is part of My redemptive plan. You need not apologize, agonize, or pretend that brokenness does not exist. You were broken and I loved you. You are still not completely whole, and still, I love you. I have fixed you, redeemed you, but not perfected you. That will come later.

Someday you will be free from self-conscious love. But, until then, you must accept your limitations. Until then, I will carry you where I want you to go, deeper into My heart of love. It is the only place you need to go. It will be the place of peace for you, for as you come close to My heart of love, you will forget about what you should be. You will also forget about what others should be. You will feel the beat of My heart in love for you. You will know you are loved; it will be all you need to know.

So, do not strive for perfection. rather, open yourself to love. Fix your eyes on the deep, wide ocean that cannot contain My love for you. Look to the sky and know that from east to west you will not find the beginning or the ending of My love for you. Pore over the volumes of the ages and know that no one has ever been able to find enough words to describe My love for you.

Feel the ache of My heart as I dressed My Son in robes of righteousness and sent Him to earth so that He might be perfect in your place. Feel My pain, over the nails that tore His flesh, My darkness, over His call for help, which I could not answer. Feel My longing for My absentee Son, whom I sent to you, and then you will know how great is My love for you."

Yours throughout eternity,
ABBA