Well, as you read this Valentine’s Day is in the rear-view mirror for another year. How did it go for you? Valentine’s Day can be fraught with peril for some – particularly those of us who are married men trying to make sure we get it right. Don’t get me started on the year I bought my wife cake pans for a gift. Let’s just say I had to recover the next year with diamond earrings. Valentine’s Day can also be a lonely one for those whose life might not currently meet the world’s expectations for what love is supposed to look like. Our culture defines romantic love in ways that often create an impossible ideal for broken sinful people like me.
I’ve been thinking about the Valentine’s Day version of love in the context of our theme for this school year “Love First” based on Romans 5:8. What does the Bible have to say about love that might contrast with the “hearts and flowers” version our culture promotes? 1 John 4:7 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” Real love comes from only one place – and it’s not Hallmark, Ghirardelli, or 1-800 Flowers. If we want to know and understand love, we must look only to the example set by God through the life of Jesus Christ. And that love is humble, patient, and fundamentally sacrificial in nature. Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or any other, let’s love one another as a reflection of how God loved us first. Oh, and skip the cake pans as a gift 🙂