Love and Hallmark

You may have heard that this past Saturday was Valentine's Day...maybe.  This holiday is associated with romantic love, and although its exact origins are a bit murky, the concept of Valentine's and its romantic love association has been around since before the middle ages.  It has now grown into a the second largest card-sending holiday in America, second only to Christmas.  Stores begin putting out Valentine's candy, flowers, balloons, cards, clothing, etc before Christmas is barely over.

You may be catching on that I have mixed feelings about this, and other holidays, that are so commercialized.  I particularly struggle with Christmas and Easter being so taken over by Hallmark that the true meaning of either holiday is almost lost in the shuffle unless you are intentionally looking for it.

That being said, I do believe love is worth celebrating.

I am so thankful to be married to Andrew.  He is honest, hard-working, funny, intelligent, kind, and a team-player in our marriage.  This March, we will have been in a committed relationship for 6 years, and while our relationship is still young, it has grown so much in the last 6 years and I look forward to spending many more years falling even deeper in love as our friendship and marriage grows.  So, Hallmark holiday or not, it's a good excuse to stop, put in a little extra effort to have a nice, romantic dinner together, and remember how blessed we are to share life together.

Words cannot express my gratitude to be Douglas & Cathy MacLeod's daughter, as well as Greg MacLeod & Emily Cutter's sister.  I am blessed to have a family who I can truly say has loved me unconditionally every day of my life. From my family, I have seen an example of how to love God, your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, and even those people you don't particularly like.  The love I have from and for my family is deep and valuable; it's worth celebrating.

As wonderful as the love experienced in my husband and family is, however, it fails at times.  We're human and we make mistakes.  We don't love perfectly and we inadvertently hurt each other at times.  The only One who can love perfectly is Christ.  In Him, we have the perfect example of love.  This is an all-consuming, sacrificial love.  A love that says, "I created you.  I have loved you perfectly from the start.  And yet, you are human and you sin.  You run away from me again and again.  But I love you and so I will pursue you until your dying breath.  I love you so much I will die for you.  But I won't stop there.  After I die, I will continue to love you by conquering Death and Hell.  I will conquer the grave and rise again.  And I still won't stop there either.  I will go ahead of you to Heaven and I will prepare a place for you so that nothing, not even death, can separate us."

When terrorists publicly murder 21 people in the name of Christ, this is the love...this is the hope, to which we cling.  Have mercy on us Lord, for we are sinners.  Have mercy on them, Lord, for they do not know what they are doing.  Kyrie Eleison.

Romans 8: 35, 37-38:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure neither death nor life,  angels nor demons, things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That love, my friends, is a love worth celebrating.