"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does
it mean having things that buzz inside you 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," said the Skin Horse. "You become.
It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who
break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved
off, and 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 people who don’t understand."

This is one of those stories from children’s literature that is almost
always sure to bring a tear to my eye. I have read it aloud so many
times and it continues to touch me at the depth of my soul.

So many people stagger through life in an unreal shell of a persona.
They struggle with fear of rejection or repulsion at the idea of the
pain they might have to suffer in the process of becoming authentic.
The pain is real and the risks are real.

However, the rewards are also real for being real.

Ms. Williams published The Velveteen Rabbit in 1922. When Margery was
seven, she lost her father in a sudden death. Throughout her life,
there was a thread of pain, suffering, and sadness in her writing. Yet,
she affirmed that through pain and adversity, hearts become more human.
Though English by birth, Margery moved to America with her family at
became inspired by the innocence of children agains the backdrop of the
war to end all wars.

The great theme of The Velveteen Rabbit is becoming real.

And so it is among the battle scarred, war torn, life worn, love lorn
souls who face and embrace life. Being real is a thing of great value
and a gift of great grace from God. To reject our authenticity is to
reject wonder. To reject wonder is to reject life. To reject life is to
reject Him.

Someone said:

And when he one day passed away,
  His insurance was denied.
  For since he never really lived,
  They claimed he never died.