“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
John 13:34
It’s February and love is in the air. Many people are already busy searching for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift or experience. But Valentine’s Day isn’t for everyone. There are millions who are excluded on this day of love. The truth is that sometimes we adults make love much more complicated than it ought to be. For instance, pinned to my bedroom wall is a simple work of art that my son made in second grade. It’s a smiley face adorned with crepe paper representing a woman’s head of hair and completed with four simple words, “I love you mommy.” Every day, this intentional piece of art brings a smile to my face and reminds me just how simple love can be. Love is the small gesture that says, “I care about you.”
Our Lord and Savior instructs in John 13:34 “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” On Valentine’s Day there will be many who will not receive a gift from a special someone, but we who have experienced the most extravagant gift of all, God’s love, are called to share the same with one another, especially with those we have been entrusted to serve.
This is how God has loved us:
Predestined: “he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” Ephesians 1:5
Intimate: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13
In our sin: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
God loved first: “We love because he first loved us.” 1John 4:19
Sacrificial- “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
Unifying love- “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth" Isaiah 43:5-6
As he has loved us, let us love one another. It’s the right thing to do. Amen.