Today we celebrate "love" - but what kind of love? Within the circle of my family and friends in the last month, there have been traumatic injury, death, birth, new jobs, new loves, and a marriage. We rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn...but sometimes we aren't finished with one when we must begin the next! Headlines continually exclaim the latest worldwide tragedy, and the most amazing triumphs. Then the world rolls on to the next big thing. How do we love in the presence of all this life happening around us?
What does Valentine's Day have to do with real love - the messy, down-to-earth, nuts-and-bolts kind of love that is action, and comfort, and eternal? Nothing, really. St. Valentine would not recognize his life message amongst the roses and candy.
What does death have to do with love? Everything, actually.
This picture sums it up.
Death…mortality…swallowed up in life. There it is. The vibrant hope of my faith, the very watershed of my belief, the difference love makes to life, is brought into sharp focus in a graveyard. Headstones – the very symbol of death – swallowed up, broken up, enveloped, in the roots of the soaring trees.
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Cor. 5:4
We mourn. Whether for someone so near to our hearts as to be a part of the very warp and woof of our lives, or for someone we have come to know from watching afar, we mourn. Death comes as a shock; never are we prepared for it, never are we truly ready.
Yet, what does Scripture tell us? That death has been overcome. That God has made a way for death to be not an end but a beginning, not a tragedy but a release.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
And how does God’s Word say this miracle was accomplished? Through love. Through the everlasting, eternal, all-powerful love of Jesus Christ. This isn't a pink-paper-hearts kind of love. It isn't a light flirtation. God doesn't change his mind, or withdraw his offer. This is a robust sepulcher-emptying, mountain-moving, heaven-opening love.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. /For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17
We don't know what our future holds here on earth. But, because of the true love of Jesus, we can know what our eternity holds. Do you believe that? It makes all the difference, now, and forever.
Blessings,
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity
This is a slightly-edited reposting from Valentine's 2014, upon special request by a dear friend of Classic Christianity. <3
What does Valentine's Day have to do with real love - the messy, down-to-earth, nuts-and-bolts kind of love that is action, and comfort, and eternal? Nothing, really. St. Valentine would not recognize his life message amongst the roses and candy.
What does death have to do with love? Everything, actually.
This picture sums it up.
Death…mortality…swallowed up in life. There it is. The vibrant hope of my faith, the very watershed of my belief, the difference love makes to life, is brought into sharp focus in a graveyard. Headstones – the very symbol of death – swallowed up, broken up, enveloped, in the roots of the soaring trees.
“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” 2 Cor. 5:4
We mourn. Whether for someone so near to our hearts as to be a part of the very warp and woof of our lives, or for someone we have come to know from watching afar, we mourn. Death comes as a shock; never are we prepared for it, never are we truly ready.
Yet, what does Scripture tell us? That death has been overcome. That God has made a way for death to be not an end but a beginning, not a tragedy but a release.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
And how does God’s Word say this miracle was accomplished? Through love. Through the everlasting, eternal, all-powerful love of Jesus Christ. This isn't a pink-paper-hearts kind of love. It isn't a light flirtation. God doesn't change his mind, or withdraw his offer. This is a robust sepulcher-emptying, mountain-moving, heaven-opening love.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. /For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17
We don't know what our future holds here on earth. But, because of the true love of Jesus, we can know what our eternity holds. Do you believe that? It makes all the difference, now, and forever.
Blessings,
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity
This is a slightly-edited reposting from Valentine's 2014, upon special request by a dear friend of Classic Christianity. <3
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