How many identities have I carried through this life? The names I've been given, the roles I've played, the judgments I've accepted, and the stories I've told myself about who I am.

Some have brought joy. Others have brought fear, disappointment, or the feeling that I needed to become someone different to be worthy of love.

Today's lesson offers a gentle remembering. Beneath all these changing images is something that has never changed. My true identity does not depend on what I've accomplished, what I've lost, what others think of me, or even what I think of myself. It abides in God.

And this remembering is not mine alone.

When I begin to see beyond the stories I've created about another person, I discover the same light that lives within me. Our shared holiness is not something we must earn or achieve. It is what we have always been.

Perhaps forgiveness begins here, in our willingness to loosen our hold on the images we've made of ourselves and one another.

Today, I can lay those images down. I can remember what Love created. And from that remembering, I can offer a blessing to the world.

My true identity abides in You.