by Barbara Latta
Chocolate, roses, fancy dinners, and stuffed animals are the
primary gifts given for
Valentine’s Day. These are physical reminders of
affectionate feelings for another person. But after the day is over, do we
revert back to old ways and forget the loving things said and done because of a
special holiday?
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| The true nature of God is love, not judgment. |
Our tokens of love are emotional. Feelings aren’t wrong, but
we can’t depend on them to guide our lives. Sometimes we don’t feel like being
loving, we would rather be grumpy or rude. But real love does the action
without the feeling.
The true nature of God is unconditional love, not judgment. He loved us while we were
still dirty, rotten sinners (Romans 5:8). He showed the one and only kind of
real love when he gave Jesus to us as a gift wrapped in a little baby to grow
into the man who would have all the foul sin of the world placed upon him. He placed the judgment of His wrath upon His own Son so it wouldn't fall upon us.
That was action, not emotion.
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| Happy Valentine's Day from Jesus |
Because He loved us, we can love Him (I John 4:10). And
because He loved us, we can love others. Not with a feeling, but with a
showing, a doing, a becoming what He made us to be.
Our works don’t bring us into a relationship with God. Faith
does that. Receiving grace does that (Ephesians 8-9). But to bring someone else
into that grace requires showing them the love of the Father. And that is where
the action comes in. When we don't retaliate against someone who has mistreated us we are reflecting the true nature of God because that is what He did for us. He doesn't give us evil when we display evil. He empties Himself and pours out a love we can not experience through human emotion.
The valentine of heaven wasn’t a card sent through an
angelic mailbox. It was blood running down a wooden cross to soak into the
cursed earth. One drop would have been enough, but he used it all to show us He
goes over and beyond and does much more than we need. He paid the highest cost and we were given the
freest gift.
Happy Valentine’s Day—from Jesus.
What does this love mean to you?
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