On being loved and desired

I have been rereading The Shape of Living by David F Ford. I am trying to put into practice something he says.

Image from Greenbelt

There are two great simple truths about Christian desiring. The first is that God desires us.

This is perhaps the hardest truth of any to grasp. Do we wake up every morning amazed that we are loved by God, aware that this is the ultimate in delight, dignity and self-worth? Do we allow our day to be shaped by God's desire to relate to us? Are we ready to be stretched in our hearts, minds, imaginations, actions and sufferings in order to do justice to this glorious God? Do we habitually see ourselves, other people and creation in the light of God's desire for us all to flourish? Do we simply long to enjoy God?

We are never in a position to have an overview of what is happening in the dramas or grace in our lives or the lives of others, but our main calling is clear: to let ourselves be desired and loved. pp.28 - 30

My take on it is that all authentic spirituality starts with God's love and desire for us.* Several things happen when I sit in this awareness that I am loved and desired by God. I can stop worrying about needing to make an impression or competing to be seen. This body relaxes and I start to feel the whole of this body. My back opens up, my chest and shoulders relax. I begin to enter this body. And then I can imagine and feel the small being that I am in the vastness of existence, an existence in which I am and always will be totally immersed, and by which I am surrounded and pervaded and thoroughly soaked.

* If you don't like the word ‘God’ then substitute your own favourite word or image: mine would be to say that I am a loved child of the Universe. I know that people will argue that God is beyond the Universe, that He created it, and this I take as true; to my mind the Universe is so unimaginably large and other that, to all intents and purposes, it is a good enough approximation for everyday use.