As a sixth grade teacher, I am all too aware of the fact
that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.
My school is planning a small Valentine’s Day dance and my students have
lost their minds. As I teach math their minds
wonder to the subject of dates. When it’s
time for English I find them absentmindedly doodling names onto their
notebooks. They are so young, and yet the obsession with finding
love has already begun for most for most of them.
What is love and why does it matter? It is inevitable that some will doubt my
ability to write on this subject because I am single, but being single gives me
the ability to focus not on my own definition of love for another person, but
on the definition of love that God gives.
Yes it is almost Valentine’s Day, but I have chosen to focus on God’s
love for us. I believe that God’s love emanates
through us. God love saves us from the
depths of Hell. It gives us the glorious
hope of Heaven. It makes our lives worth
living and propels us to show His love to others.
Think about your life.
Think about your actions today. How
many of your actions today were out of love?
If you packed your child’s lunch today, then it was probably out of love
for them and the desire for them to be well fed. If you called your mother on your way to
school then, it was probably because you love her. If you shoveled the snow from the walk this
morning, it was so that the family you love will be able to safely leave your
house. You didn’t think about how much
you loved your family when you did these things, but as you think about it now,
you realize that love brings you to action.
It is the same with God’s love for us. Consider this: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8. Jesus has died for us because He loves us and
desires to spend eternity with us so that we can forever worship Him. He loved us while we were still hard to
love. He loved us when we were still in
sin. Now don’t get me wrong. God does
not love our sin. He is a just God and
will punish us for our sin. But He also
loves us and His love caused action so that He allowed Jesus to die for our
sins so that we could be saved. I just
can’t get over this verse. I have a very hard time visualizing myself
looking at something that I hate, that is covered in sin and loving it
still. But that is why I am just a
person, incapable of understanding the nature of our divine God.
But back to the point, love causes action. God saved us because He could see our
potential when we were still sinners and loved us. As humans our sinful nature teaches us to love
ourselves above all else. But God’s love
is not like our selfish human love. God’s
love teaches us to love others above ourselves.
As Christians we act in love because God loves us. He is our God and is worthy of our love and
of our action. Most days, I don’t want
to act out of love. I want to act out of
selfishness. I want what I want. This is something that we all have to deal
with and fight against daily. We act
because we love and are loved.
But what happens when we act without love? God commands us to feed the hungry so what if
we go and feed the hungry. That is good
enough, right? No, unfortunately it is
not. Just about every person that I have
ever met agrees that we should help the poor.
Lost and saved alike fight for the needs of the orphan and seek to bring
peace to the war-torn nations. So what
is the difference? Well, again the
difference is love. The greatest need of
all is the same for everyone. We all
need Jesus. We need to be saved by His
love through faith by His grace. So action
out of obligation, simply because there is a need, is not enough. It must be powered by God’s love so that we
will also meet spiritual needs, namely the need to trust God as our Lord and Savior.
So as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, remember that God loves
you. He has blessed you beyond all
measure simply because he allowed Jesus to die a horrible death on the cross so
that we can be with Him forever. We are
sinners, but have been saved by grace through our faith. Thank you Jesus for saving us! Allow this knowledge to move you to action
this week. Don’t waste your time. Allow yourself to be obsessed with love, but
let that love be for others! Let God’s
love consume your life and change it for the better. Love others and tell them about the wonderful
Love that Jesus has for us!
