Dear Flock,
If you’ve been to a grocery store anytime recently it is hard to miss the fact that Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. The color Red is everywhere. Candy hearts too, decorate the aisle way. And very soon every school aged child is going to come home with a backpack full of cheap cardboard valentines with pithy little statements where cartoon characters and Super heroes will shout in bold letters phrases like the two cards below with Superman boasting, “I’m Flying High for you… Valentine” and the villain the Joker professing that it’s “No Joke, I like you!”
I enjoy seeing kids get these little tokens of appreciation and celebrate how simply being kindly thought of by classmates can build their own sense of self-worth and importance. And when the card comes with a little bit of dime store candy, all the better! Am I right?
It is amazing what a statement of care, even when expressed in a silly little way, can mean to a person. And, you know, this is a reality of human nature. It doesn’t stop in childhood, but continues on through all of life. We all love being loved. We all appreciate being appreciated.
The reason for this is simple. We have all been created in the image of God. God is, in his very nature, within his very being, Love itself. The complex truth that He is Triune—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—proclaims that God is relational in a deeper and more profound way than our finite minds will ever fully comprehend. But even as we wrestle with the intricacies of high and lofty theology, we are always able to simplify the complex with a statement so basic even a child can understand it. The whole of our relationship to God is this: God is Love.
And, whether we are 8 or 80, this is a truth well worth remembering.
And God declares his great love for us in a message far greater than what any simple card could express. Rather, God declared his love for us by sending His Son. Jesus came for no other purpose than to declare to the world God’s great love for the world and to provide the means by which we could be restored to right relationship with God.
No sin, no transgression, no failure will ever surpass the Love of God.
As we near this day which celebrates love, may you remember Who it is that loves you.
Blessings,
Pastor Tim
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 (KJV)