Gus (age three): “Daddy, where
Nana?” Daddy: “She left on the plane
last night after you went to bed.” Gus:
“Me miss Nana!” As you can imagine, my
“love-o-meter” was on overflow when I heard about that conversation.
My daughter-in-love texted me a
picture that Henry (age seven) submitted to his school journal. It showed two
stick people, one clearly labeled “Nana” and the other, “me”. We had our arms wound around each other and
underneath the picture he wrote: “My Nana came to town and it was AWESOME!” (Be still my heart.)
Love. A simple word with so many
meanings. At this time of year we
envision flowers, cards with hearts, romance and chocolate. Charlie and I recently attended a wonderful
dinner sponsored by our church, at a local resort restaurant – an early
celebration of Valentine’s Day.
I love watching “chick flicks”, at
least the ones that honor a moral code.
Nothing like a good romance, with all the complications of the story
(assuming the guy and gal end up together!). Of course, Hollywood has tarnished
the whole idea of romantic love but, thankfully, through Christian sources
there are still some lovely movies available.
Is love limited to those “feel good”
moments? Are we loving each other only
when we are smiling and laughing?
I would suggest that love often makes
strong demands on us. Deep love happens
in the dark and tough events of life.
The “Jesus on the cross”… kinds of events. The sacrificial loss of life
during war…. kinds of events. First Responders putting their own lives in danger…kinds of events.
Real love means choosing to birth and
love the baby in the womb who has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. That one stares me in the face every time I
spend time with my six year old grandson, Jacob. Love is being in for the long
haul.
Real love means working hard on
marriage, sitting with a counselor and walking through the human sin areas to
get to the other side.
Real love may take the form of “tough
love” with an errant teenager or a loved one who needs help with an
addiction.
Real love may be choosing to make
funds available for a ministry instead of purchasing more ____ (fill in
the blank). “Sacrificial giving”? It
doesn’t even compare with the sacrifice Jesus made as he looked down from the
cross, praying,” Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
There is an old song containing the
words, “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love.” I would certainly agree with those words but
I wonder if the writer had a clue how much
the world needs real love.
There are many verses in the Bible on
love; after all, the Bible is the greatest love story ever told. 1
Corinthians 3:13, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but
the greatest of these is love.”
There are also scriptures highlighting God’s love for us using words
like “discipline”, “reproves”, “speaking truth”. (Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews
2:6, Revelation 3:19, to name a few.)
As we approach Valentine’s Day, let’s
turn our hearts toward the God Who spoke love to us through the words of His
book. As we pray for guidance and
direction, I challenge us to allow God to reprove and discipline us. What is He asking me or you to do? How much do we actually love God? Is He our ALL or do we place Him out of sight
at times?
I love my “Chick Flicks” and romance
novels but what I want most of all is to deeply love The One Who created me,
the One Who rescued, redeemed and restored me.
You know that picture Henry drew?
I envision God and I wrapping our arms around each other when I step
into eternity and I can’t wait to hear the words, “Judy, I love you” as I look
at Jesus’ nail pierced hands.
