Valentine’s Day is an American holiday set aside to remember and demonstrate love to one another.
Some people loathe Valentine’s Day due to all the forced advertising reminders; say it with chocolates, flowers, and stuffed animals. Why do we need an advertising cupid to tell us how to love one another, anyway?
Could it be that the world has picked up on what Scripture has said all along? That we need help with real instruction when it comes to matters of the heart.
Since the beginning, it seems that we have always struggled to get it right with love. From the time that Adam and Eve left God’s perfect love to pursue what they thought was better, to Judas giving Christ an exemplary sign of affection, only to betray Him.
Our love is fleeting, self-centered, and, many times, conditional. If you love me and keep our vows, then I will love you.
But God’s love is perfect because His nature is love. There is never a time when God does not love. Even His anger is a holy expression of perfect love. His grace and mercy pursue us relentlessly even while we are rebelling. And, His biggest love-gift to humanity cannot be matched! He sent His Son as the living example of real sacrificial love.
Have you considered just how many ways Christ told us what real love looks like?
“Love is patient
Love is kind,
Love does not envy or boast;
Love is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
Love is not irritable or resentful;
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
Love believes all things,
Love hopes all things,
Love endures all things”
Cupid’s got nothing on Christ!
Perfect love doesn’t need stuffed animals and chocolates as reminders. It’s overwhelming, never-ending, an extravagant yet defining act that enables eternal freedom and peace.
We desperately long to be filled up with a lasting love that is full of hope. Christ is that true love that never fails.
Valentine’s Day is a day to boast our love-life. Christ’s life was sacrificed to boast our eternity. I can’t think of a better Valentine than that!
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. – 1 John 4:16-18