“He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me,… he loves me not”
All year you envisioned what this day would look like. You’ve got all dressed up as you run to the door with the hope to be gifted with a big, fluffy 6-foot teddy bear along with a heart-shaped box of milk chocolate attached to pink and red balloons. While you sit at the windowpane waiting for the doorbell to ring, you plucked at the petals of your peace lily plant to find that the last petal plucked determined the outcome of the entire situation.
“He doesn’t love me.”
Trust me, I have been there, you may have been there, and I’m sure we all know someone who has been there. But what if I told you that there is someone who loves you so much? So much to the point that you wouldn’t have to play a game to determine their love for you. Neither will you have to guess if the love is mutual.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
Yes, that is right! Your Heavenly Father loves you!
When the bear gets dingy, and the chocolates have been eaten, and your balloons have become flat, this… this is the love that lasts forever.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
God loves us. Yes me and you, so very much that despite our sin, He sent His one and only son to die for us, so that we can gain eternal life. Why would someone make such a sacrifice? It is because He cares for us deeply and wants to have a relationship with us. God’s heart is so big for us that He wants us to be cleansed from our sin. This is the heart of a true, loving, and gentle Father.
“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
It is not that we loved God, but it is that He loved us. It is because of His love that we can return this love to others. You weren’t wrong to expect a beautiful and lovely Valentine’s Day, however, when we are not connected to the ultimate source, we cannot love each other properly. We are insufficient and have lacked the ability to do what we should have naturally done in the beginning. If Adam had love, he would have obeyed God’s word. The relationship of love was destroyed, but the good news is that God wants to redeem it.
“…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
This is a prayer that Paul prayed for the people in Ephesus and what he says still stands for us today. Paul’s prayer is that we abide in Jesus, stay in His Word, and be rooted in God’s love. When we trust in Him and fill ourselves with His word, then we will find that this love is reciprocated–except 1000 times more.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). It was because of Jesus’ love for the church that He endured the beating. It was because of His love that He took up his cross. It was because of His love for the church that He was pierced in his side and shed his blood. Now as the body, our new command is to “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34).
With this firm and steadfast love, I pray that as you wait in expectancy and when you finally hear the doorbell ring, that you open to find Jesus standing there with so much more to give to you.
Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!