VaLENTine's Day

 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13

I love how the secular holiday of Valentine's Day has overlapped with the sacred days of Lent. While card companies may use the excuse of cupid to shamelessly sucker people into buying sweet sentiments on expensive card stock, the focus of love on this day of paper hearts can be an opportunity to ponder the Greatest Love.

Our culture tells us that Valentine's Day - of all days - is a day to be wined and dined by the one who claims to love you. Restaurants are packed and cater to lovebirds that are looking for romantic in a  space of cutlery clinking on dishes and the hum of surrounding conversations. Christmas's sweets are barely finished when the heart-shaped boxes of chocolates enter the stores. And if you are really in a committed relationship, a trip to the jewelry store is a must. 

The stakes are high and the last thing we want is to be disappointed. I recall the early days of dating my hubby and the first years of marriage when we still tried to live up to these expectations of me expecting things and him obliging. And while giving gifts out of love is not wrong, our expectations and demands of love can be. 

My daughter's love language is gifts. This means she has spent hours on hand making Valentines for us and her grandparents. She has debated in her mind over and over what gifts she would buy or make for each of us. We can say continuously how she doesn't have to buy us anything but that is simply how she expresses her love. She gives. Which is where Lent comes in ...

Our Greatest Love gave too. He set aside His rightful position as Lord of Lords and King of Kings to come to earth in humble, human form to spend his time among humble, human sinners. He lived a perfect life that God demands but that we could never fulfil and gives us His robe of righteousness through the gift of faith.  He gave Himself up on the cross and took the punishment for our sins! He endured separation from God that we rightly earned from our fallen, sinful nature and called it ... finished. He continually gives us Himself through the Word that's preached, heard, read, and spoken. The giving continues in the Sacraments where faith is given in Baptism and He gives us His body and blood in the Lord's Supper to sustain our faith. 

All this He gives! 

God is LOVE.

What a different message than what we hear in this world! Our sinful flesh likes to be served. Our natural condition screams what about me? The culture's motto is you have to be happy first and love yourself before you can love others. 

God's message contrasts what the world claims. The message is big and bold and takes a leap of faith. We put our wants and desires aside just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28
Out of faith and out of our thankfulness to Jesus, we keep giving of ourselves and trust God to provide for our wants and desires. 

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:18-20

 Instead of expectations and demands, what if we seek to meet the needs of those closest to us? Instead of looking out for me, we give what we have to them? This is a love that can never be disappointed.