And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. I admit that the colorful pun-filled cards and candy probably attracted me as a kid. But now as an adult I enjoy taking back what the card and candy companies meant for profit and using it to promote REAL love – God’s love – a powerful and mysterious force of good in a world so full of ‘not good.’ It is the foundation of everything, a universally healing balm that has the power to restore all of humanity.

When kids ask, “What is God made of?” the surprising answer is that God is Love. (1 John 4:8) And like God himself, His love is everywhere.  As John Paul Young famously sang in 1978, love is In the air. But like the thousands of radio, internet, and phone transmissions floating through the ether, you need to be receptive to it to truly feel it and grasp it. “…and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.” Ephesians 3:18-19

God’s love is eternal. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”” Because God has no beginning or ending, neither does His love.

It is also powerful -- it can withstand anything. “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10

And God’s love is universal. It is for every person in the entire world! “How precious is your constant love, O God! All humanity takes refuge in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 36:7 And of course, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Furthermore, God’s love is personal. Not only is it for everybody, it is for you personally. God loved you first, before you were even born, and the proof is the life of our savior Jesus Christ, who came to free us from the bondage of sin. “This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 Once we put our faith in Jesus as the Lord of our lives, God’s love is poured into us. “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

As a result, we are a people called to love one another with the love of God. “Dear friends, let us love each other, because love comes from God. Those who love are God’s children and they know God.” 1 John 4:7 And the love of God is a love that “…knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.” 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a J.B. Phillips New Testament

PRAYER: Lord of Love, help me every hour to love others with Your love. Teach me to love the unlovable, the enemies, the lost, the proud, those who exploit others, those who twist your Holy Word. Help me to show love to my family and those in my life every day who are easy to overlook or take for granted. And Lord, help me to love myself as Your child, and a temple for Your Holy Spirit. Let love be my calling card always. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Sending you love,

Jen