Love In The Air

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We love because he first loved us. I John 4:19 NIV

Are you looking for that perfect verse for your Friday’s Hallmark Valentine’s Day card? You might have a go with some of these timeless quotes. Cartoonist and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz wrote, “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” That only works if you buy the good chocolates. For those a little more romantic sounding, you might try English writer and poet, Christina Rossetti, “Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine.”

For you poets at heart, you might go with something from William Shakespeare, “Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt Truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.” This goes really well when quoting a verse from King James. If you are not really into Valentine’s Day you might try something a shade darker from Orson Welles, “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.”

This Friday marks the second most popular holiday for sending cards, Valentine’s Day. Over 150 million cards will be exchanged during Valentine’s Day and that is just in the United States. J.C. Hall founder of Hallmark began selling Valentine’s Day postcards in 1910, adding greeting cards to their inventory in 1913. Hallmark may have profited from the day but they are not the creators of Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day was named for a martyred St. Valentine with its roots going back to the third century. History records a couple of priests who were both named Valentine but both had a love element to their tragic stories. One of the priests defied Emperor Claudius II who had decreed that soldiers made better fighting men if single but Valentine continued to secretly perform their marriages.

The romantic side of Valentine’s Day is a rather recent event, dating back to the 14th century thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. Then along came Richard Cadbury in the 19th century with heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and the Hallmark line of greeting cards in the 20th century. Valentine’s Day is our one day out of 365 marked exclusively to focus on love!

Valentine’s Day may be a nice way to express how one feels with gifts of cards, flowers, chocolate, and jewelry. However, long before Hallmark printed their first card, Cadbury molded his first heart-shaped chocolate and Chaucer penned his sonnet, God showed us true love. He took us into the depths of love and showed us the enduring and unbreakable nature of what is true love. He gave us love when we didn’t deserve it yet willingly died for us. (Rom 5:8). He showed us a love that sacrificed His only Son. (John 3:16). He showed us love that we should be called “children of God.” (I John 3:1)

The world’s standard for love often comes down to what makes me feel good about myself, or what I enjoy doing. Even when love is focused on someone else, it still comes down to what I can get out of it, how it makes me feel or how can it help me. It is not surprising that the me part gets pretty big in worldly love.

Dave Mercer asked his Old Testament professor when he was in seminary, “What is the one thing that I should walk away with when studying the Old Testament?” The professor’s answer was short and simple, “The unconditional love of God.”

The unconditional love of God is actually a good summary of all of Scripture. From day one of Genesis until the closing curtain of earth, God’s love has permeated all of life. It is a love that at times has been very costly for God. Adam and Eve set the script for disobedience, but God rewrote the script back to how He intended it to be, unconditional. The cost continued to mount until Jesus spoke those heaven-shattering words, “It is finished.”

The Puritan writer John Owen wrote, “The fountain of the grace and mercy of Christ is infinite…His love is eternal, free, and unchangeable. Whom he loves, he loves unto the end! His love is such as never had a beginning and shall never have an end. He is the Beloved of our souls, holy, harmless, and undefiled, full of grace and truth.”

Love in the English language can cover everything from I love Chick-fil-A to the words spoken at the bedside of your dying partner in life. Love can be used in terms of sacrifice, romance, and mushy sentiments but it fails to capture the power of what it can be. The word love can be used to motivate, encourage, express feelings, or manipulate.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:4-8a,13 NIV)

There are few definitions of love greater than what Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinth church. He gave us definitions for love which do not just sound nice on a sentimental greeting card but how love can make a difference in our lives every day. It is a love lived out that impacts the world around us. We can be grateful that God gave us a true definition of love, He gave himself! Now that is what I call a Valentine’s Day!

God is great!

 

 

 

Groundhog Day Living

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The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. Isaiah 40:8

One of the most profound questions asked yesterday wasn’t spoken from the pulpits of our churches, nor the echelons of Washington power brokers but from a crowd gathered in Punxsutawney, Penn. The monumental question, “Did Phil see his shadow?” has high expectations around the world on Groundhog Day as people wait for one of the most famous weather “persons” to give his forecast, Punxsutawney Phil. Living in his luxurious home at Gobbler’s Knob outside of Punxsutawney, this little groundhog has one job, to forecast spring or continue winter.

If Phil sees his shadow, we have six more weeks of winter but if he does not, then it is a forecast of an early spring. This tradition of forecasting dates back hundreds of years, but Punxsutawney Phil has been doing this job since 1887. You would think after that many years of predicting he should be pretty good at his job but Phil only gets it right about 39% of the time!

Punxsutawney Phil found his stardom when he met the cynical television weatherman Phil Connors in the 1993 fantasy comedy, “Groundhog Day”. Weatherman Phil played by Bill Murray is sent on his annual trek to Punxsutawney to do his weather show. The problem, though, is that Phil hates the assignment, and shows only contempt for the locals and his co-workers. As fate would have it, a blizzard forces everyone to stay overnight after the Groundhog Day festivities. He awakes to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” playing on the radio which will be Phil’s story as he has to relive Groundhog Day over and over in a continuous time loop. The loop forces him to relive his daily life as he goes from an angry, resentful, and frustrated person to a compassionate, caring individual who finally breaks the loop as a changed man.

Groundhog Day may not be listed among the great movies such as Casablanca, Titanic, the Star Wars movie sagas, It’s A Wonderful Life or the Rocky series but it did have an impact on the cultural definition of language. Groundhog Day isn’t just about weather forecasting but now expresses a life that is monotonous, unpleasant, repetitive, unwelcome, tedious, or recurring.

Doc is a new TV series where the lead character, a doctor, is involved in a car wreck resulting in the loss of her last eight years of memory. What she lost in those eight years was the knowledge of her son’s death, the estrangement with her daughter, and her divorce. Following the death of her son, she had become cold, harsh, and critical of her fellow doctors, staff, and patients. The new version of her life resembles her old self. No longer carrying the baggage of the last eight years she has become again a caring and compassionate doctor. I’m not sure where the show is going but it has been interesting to watch as she begins a new life.

Phil Connors got to replay his life over and over again. I can think of times when I wish I could have had a Groundhog Day; mistakes I have made, words not spoken well, redoing a decision made, or simply doing something different. However, like everyone else, I didn’t have that opportunity.

What I did get, and what is available to everyone is grace. God has opened the pathway for us to move forward with forgiveness and redemption. God doesn’t let us get caught in a Groundhog Day but beautifully reassures us “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Unlike the TV doctor who loses her memory, God chooses to extend grace and forgiveness to us. He no longer holds our past against us but restores and makes us whole again. He gives us a totally new story that we can tell.

Whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow or not, it really doesn’t matter. Spring will come whether it is tomorrow or six weeks from now. Ultimately Phil is simply a cute little groundhog but in God, we have a God who loves us giving us life, hope, and a new beginning.

The families of those who died in the horrendous plane crash last week in Washington D.C. would give anything for a Groundhog Day. The tragic loss of husbands, wives, children, and friends leaves us without words to adequately express the sorrow all of us feel at this time. Dr. Thomas White, president of Cedarville University speaking to the students following the news of one of their own, 20-year-old Grace Maxwell, who died in the crash said,

“Death seems wrong. It seems wrong because God didn’t create this world to be this way. Death came into this world because sin came into this world. And so, for us to see this death and think this is not right, it’s normal. Friends, it’s moments like these where your worldview matters most. When we recognize this is not the way it should be. So, we grieve and we’re sad, and we don’t know why a young, bright, shining star was taken from us way too soon, but we know there’s a God that will make all things new.”

Dr. White closed with the words, “This is not the end, and one day, the Jesus that we bear in common will wipe away every tear, and he’ll create a new creation where there will be no more death and no more sadness and no more sorrow, and that’s the way it was meant to be.” (Jesse T. Jackson, ChurchLeaders)

There will be days when you feel you are trapped in a Groundhog Day and equally there will be special days when you would like for the day to be a Groundhog Day. However, either way, it will still fall short of being caught up in a God-shaped day.

God-shaped days are new every morning, directed by God who loves us. We listen silently as he sings over us, trusting him when we cry out for help, resting in the strength of Jesus interceding for us and knowing God is ever-present.

“Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him.” Psalm 34:8 The Message

God is great!