What is real?

Devotions were rather intriguing today. Who I Am In Christ? by Neil T. Anderson was a gift from mum. Today's was I am a friend in Christ and they were explaining what a friend means. And how much Jesus is of a friend to us, the very best kind btw. And he what it takes to love a brother as a friend is to be real; hence he quotes "The Velveteen Rabbit"

“What is real?” asked the Rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside and a stick-out handle?”

            “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse “It’s a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.”

            “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.”

            “Does it happen all at once like being wound up?” he asked, “or bit by bit?

            “It doesn’t happen all at once. 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 have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved, 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 the people who don’t understand.”

Plenty to ponder on.