A Love Story

Today is the day we traditionally celebrate the romantic love we have for someone – Valentine’s Day. Some people will propose marriage today. Many will give cards, flowers, and chocolates with messages of love for their spouse or intended.

I’m not a poet but here’s my attempt at sentiment:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I want to order pizza
And watch Netflix with you.

There are many theories around the origins of Valentine’s Day and, nowadays, many see it as too commercialised. Yet, for Christians, it is an opportunity to reflect on the love God has for us.

Did you know there are over three hundred references in the Bible to God’s love for us?

We know, I hope, that God has always loved us. He has loved us from the very beginning, before we were even born. Psalm 139 talks of us being knitted together in our mother’s womb and being fearfully and wonderfully made. He loved us before we came to know Him (Romans 5:8). And He promises that his love will never change (Isaiah 54:10). Never.

And we know that there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make Him stop loving us or to love us less: ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:38–39). It doesn’t get any more emphatic than that!

We also know, I hope, that no one is excluded from God’s love. Because God’s love is inclusive and unconditional. Whatever we are or aren’t, whatever we do or don’t do, He loves us. So, we see the Pharisees rebuke Jesus for eating with sinners and Jesus responds: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick” (Luke 5:31).

And God’s love is limitless (Ephesians 3:17-19). It’s a love that exceeds our knowledge and understanding. A love so wide and so deep and so high, we cannot fathom it.

But the aspect of God’s love that particularly speaks to me today is God’s sacrificial love - the love that says: ‘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’ (John 3:16). C. S Lewis wrote “(Jesus) died not for men but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.” Just let that thought sink in. God loves you so much that, if you were the only person on this earth, He would still have sent His son to die for you. Because, to your Heavenly Father, you are of unimaginable worth. There is nothing greater He could have done, nothing that would cost Him more but to send His own Son to die for you.

Can I encourage you to take some time today to meditate on the above scriptures and to receive the words “for He so loved me?” It truly is the greatest love story ever told.

Happy Valentine’s Day!