Love is in the Air

Even in our local supermarket you can’t escape the signs that it is nearly St Valentine’s Day. The cuddly toys, cut-price boxes of chocolates and large displays of cards to choose from to help us show our love to partners, potential partners, friends, parents and perhaps even our teachers (there is a wide choice of cards to peruse!!)

Historians trace the origin of St Valentine’s Day to the Roman Empire, although a young priest called Valentine gave the day its name and clearer meaning. There are various legends about Valentine himself (I’ll leave the very interested among you to your own research!) but many believe the 14^th February to be an opportunity to celebrate love, and not just romantic love (remember those teacher cards I mentioned earlier?)

The Bible is full of passages talking about love – our love for God, God’s love for us and love that we have for one another. I’ve been reflecting on some of these passages recently because of a situation a friend has found herself in and I have to be honest and say that some of the seemingly ‘simple’ passages present us with some of the greatest challenges.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^a]"> This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Excerpts from 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

God’s love transcends all of our human definitions of love to the point that we perhaps cannot fully understand it. For me, the crucial thing is that God’s love is unconditional. It does not depend on feelings or emotions. He doesn’t change the love He has for us based on how we make Him feel or how ‘loveable’ we are. He loves us, created us to be in a relationship with Him, and sacrificed His only Son to restore that relationship. Even though we may struggle to comprehend it because of the limitations of language or understanding, the fact is that God is Love and as Christians we can rejoice in that fact, not just on one day, but 365.