“I’m your best friend” was the statement I heard in my heart during a vulnerable time earlier this year. God communicated the weight of our friendship in the most delicate and loving way that first shocked, but then soothed me. He assured me of what we had and who I was before life could tell me otherwise. Like a true confidant, He prepared me for my next dimension.

Through song, through sermons, through my journaling sessions, He shared that He is my defender…I need not fight for myself. He reminded me that the purity of my heart is not dependent on whether or not loved ones can see it or affirm it. His perception of me is what is true. And what I am and what I choose to be…is His friend. 

And He’s becoming my bestie, too. 

What’s so beautiful about a relationship with God is that there are no limits to how deep we can go—intimacy with Him is boundless. There is no blindness there, only endless love. He doesn’t change His mind or cut us off; He sees us very clearly and chooses us time and time again. 

In church, we often sing about being “friends of God” and we read about how He lets us in on the secret things and calls us friend, too. However, there is an intimacy that goes beyond what we sing or what we read. This intimacy only comes when we make the choice to experience life with Him. In the roughest times, He’s not only telling us “I’m here.” He also desires for us to accept the invitation to run to Him time and time again…from glory to glory. 

Sure, we may get upset with Him. Sure, we may place the blame on Him. Sure, we may even distance ourselves. I sure did it all. But ultimately, I knew that repentance and keeping an open heart would allow for His love to penetrate any form of rejection, hurt, loneliness, or confusion. I knew that choosing to have an open and soft heart would best allow me to mirror Him in the battles I face(d). I knew that all the difficulty we were facing together was what was building our tenacious connection.

Transforming into Ever-Increasing Glory

I often share that I love God’s wittiness and I must reiterate this, seeing how He led me to 2 Corinthians 3:18 a few weeks ago. (You’ll see why I had a “ha” moment soon enough!) It says:

We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 (HCSB)

Isn’t it funny how you can be familiar with a passage and it takes on a new meaning when it speaks to your specific situation? Once I read this verse, I knew it would be the basis of this blog post. I’d been wanting to return to the blog but didn’t have the words yet. That passage, however, drew the message out of me. 

The Unveiling of Glory

It’s been seven months since I’ve written to you last; it was earlier this year when I was writing about the glorious destinies revealed through our unveilings. After the few months I went MIA in 2021 (arguably the most exhausting period of my life), I returned to share how I felt a shift. I was filled when I recalled Romans 8:18-20, which says:

“I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us. The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters! For against its will the universe itself has had to endure the empty futility resulting from the consequences of human sin. But now, with eager expectation, all creation longs for freedom from its slavery to decay and to experience with us the wonderful freedom coming to God’s children.”

In that blog post, I referenced the book of Romans and shared how creation awaits us. How, in the same way our unveiling leads to God’s glory, His unveiling leads to ours. Now here I am, in a completely different place, studying yet another verse, and writing to you about removing the veil to reflect the glory of our Friend. 

New Glory

Lots has changed in those seven months. There’s so much newness going on: two of them being that I’m done writing my third contracted book and I got a new job! For the past five months, I’ve been positioned as the fashion editor at Cosmopolitan. See here for my announcement post and a reel sharing my loved ones’ reactions! It’s been such a wild and fulfilling ride and I can’t wait to share my testimony with you. 

For now, I posted a life update on YouTube sharing some of the hardships I’ve experienced from 2021 to early this year (we’re talking about loss: losing a promise, losing my possessions in a flood, losing precious loved ones to sickness, and so much more that I can’t begin to mention) while I was away. But I’m also sharing how in the midst of pivotal losses and questioning God, He led me back to His love.

2 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. I know this verse refers to salvation, but it also resonated with me as a believer because it reminds me of the choice we all have to make when it comes to turning to God in all circumstances. We keep the veil off by prioritizing connection with our Best Friend, by encountering God and His freedom over and over again.

As believers, our faces are no longer covered. We all display God’s glory and every stage gives us the opportunity to be transformed into His likeness. To be transformed from glory to glory is to remain moldable when life gives you so many reasons to turn hard. It is the choice to be changed. It is reintroducing yourself to His loving companionship, no matter the time or place.