Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled, You Are Beloved, was written by Anne Cetus.

To express her sadness, Allie, a young girl, rode on a piece of wood and set it in a park.

To be honest, I'm sad.

Nobody ever wants to hang out with me, and I have lost the only person that listens.

I cry every day.

When someone found that note, she brought sidewalk chalk to the park and asked people

to write their thoughts to Allie. Dozens of words of support were left by students from a nearby

school. We love you. God loves you. You are beloved. The school principal said,

This is one little way that we can reach out and maybe help fill her void.

She represents all of us because at some point in time we have all or will all experience sadness and suffering.

The phrase you are beloved reminds me of a beautiful blessing by Moses and Deuteronomy 33 to the Israelite tribe of Benjamin just before he died. Let the beloved of the

Lord rest secure in him. Moses had been a strong leader for God,

defeating enemy nations,

receiving the Ten Commandments,

and challenging them to follow God.

He left them with God's view of them.

The word beloved can be used of us as well,

for Jesus said,

God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son.

As God helps us to rest securely in the truth that every believer in Jesus is beloved,

we can reach out to love others as Allie's new friends did.

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