How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1
One day this month we were riding in a taxi and I saw a man walking on the road wearing a shirt that said HIV POSITIVE in huge letters.
Despite the alarmingly high percentage of the population that has HIV in South Africa, people with HIV are often ostracized in their communities. Individuals will travel to an entirely different city to receive medical treatment because they do not want people in their own communities to know about their disease.
When I saw this man I thought about the bravery it takes him to walk around wearing this shirt. Then I thought about what the world would be like if all of us were wearing shirts like this. Shirts painted with words the world uses to judge us.
Liar.
Cheater.
Fat.
Fake.
Dumb.
Unwanted.
What would my shirt say? What would your shirt say?
But then I also thought what our shirts would say if God got to choose to write the words on them.
Loved.
Cherished.
Free.
Chosen.
Beloved.
Saved.
Child of the King.
MINE.
The beautiful thing about this, is that we are already wearing these words in the eyes of God. He looks at us and sees not a single label given by the world, but only the words and names he calls us. We are already His beloved. We are already His chosen.
While I believe it is brave for this man to walk through life unashamed of his condition, I believe what is truly brave is to stop believing in labels at all. Believe, instead, in the truths given to us by God.
