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A Lenten Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day.  Which means a lot of Hallmark cards will be sold, along with flowers, candy, and assorted gifts - all in commemoration of Love.
It's a good thing to love...God gave it to us as a gift.  Since we are made "in the image of God", we have the capacity to love, for after all God is Love.
The words of scripture are well-known, but bear our remembrance on this day:

1 John 4:7-10 (NRSV)
7  Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God...
9  God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:16-19 (NRSV)
16  So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them...
18  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...
19  We love because he first loved us.

Romans 5:8 (NRSV)
8  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  

John 3:16 (ESV)
16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

No one can quite comprehend the love of God.  To love like He does is beyond most of us.
God is love,
And Love is a Relationship
That Relationship is full of Joy - a Joy that quite besides reason.

I remember many years ago, one Sunday evening, after Church services.  Our family was full of little kids and we all went to a Perkins Restaurant.  We sat in a booth in the corner...one of those semi-circle booths that no one large wanted to be stuck in the middle of.  When someone big needed to go to the bathroom, half of the booth had to get up and get out of it to let that one person out, and then it was repeated when they came back - so we always stuck the little ones in the middle!

That evening, our youngest son, was sitting in the middle and he must have been thinking about something that related to church - at least that's what I tell myself.  Perhaps nothing more was happening but that God's Spirit was working in his mind and heart.  He leaned over and said, "Dad, can I ask Jesus to come into my heart?"  A rather innocent and lovely statement from a little kid..."Yes...do you want to do it right now?" 
He thought a bit, and then said, "Yes"...and he disappeared...
slid down off the bench and went under the table...
a little while later he emerged, and had a smile on his face.

"What did you do?" I asked.
"I asked Jesus to come into my heart"...that's it, that's all, that's enough.

It would be easy to say, "He was influenced by his environment, doing what pleased his parents...fit into his religious community...did what was expected socially..."  Blah, Blah, Blah...

The fact of the matter is though that millions of millions of people have done the same thing - responded to the Love of God.
All of us have the same ability - to love, to trust, to accept and receive what is freely given...and it doesn't have to happen once 
In a Perkins...
Under a Table...
It can happen again, and again, and again.

Our invitation from God, is to believe, trust in, and walk every day in the reality that we are loved...and the story of that love keeps on going through out the days of our life, and then on into eternity.

Happy Valentine's Day...It's a Lovely Day

Peace

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