I just finished doing a little Internet surfing on some Valentine’s Day websites. After the necessary censoring for language and questionable love hints, I have gathered a few Valentine hints that might make your upcoming Valentine’s Day easier.
First, don’t be cheap. Hmm, materialism is alive and well, huh?
Also, don’t forget to make reservations. When your loved one’s heart is set on china and candles, paper wrapped sandwiches by the dome light of the car just won’t do.
Do something romantic. Remember there is nothing remarkable about love at first sight. Remarkable is when you are still in love after you have been looking at each other for years.
Do list all the reasons you love him or her.
Whew. This love stuff is hard work, unlike the love found in Ephesians 3:17-19. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Jesus’ love for us is not cheap. His sacrifice made his love so wide and long and high and deep that we can barely understand it. We need no reservation to experience his love, only a heart willing to believe and obey. When we realize who Jesus is, we know that there are no other gods that have left a legacy of an empty tomb.
In his monumental work “Mere Christianity,” C.S. Lewis said, “On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.” Why is that, I wonder? It could be that we realize there is a world of difference between the love found in John 3:16 and the love missing in Revelation 3:16. John 3:16 tells of God’s love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Revelation 3:16 tells of the absence of our love for God, ”So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot or cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” God’s love for us gives us life, but our love for him must not be tainted by apathy and indifference.
The last verse of the hymn “The Love of God,” written by F.M. Lehman, says it best: “Could we with ink the ocean fill/And were the skies of parchment made/Were every stalk on earth a quill/And every man a scribe by trade:/To write the love of God above/Would drain the ocean dry/Nor could the scroll contain the whole/Though stretched from sky to sky.”
This year I wish I had sent God a Valentine. I wish I had told that I love him more now than ever. I wish I had remembered to thank him for first loving me. I wish I had listed for him all the reasons I love him.
Thankfully, it’s not too late.
Verna Davis, author and speaker, writes in Frankton. She can be reached at Vrdspeaks@yahoo.com.
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Verna Davis: Jesus' love deserving, and it's not too late to send a Valentine
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