Thought for the week (we 15th February 2015)

Valentine’s Day on Saturday will see the usual array of red roses, chocolates and other gifts given as expressions of love and affection. Greetings cards from the hilarious to the deeply romantic will be sent and this fine tradition of expressing love and intimacy will be at the heart of all the celebrations.

A story this week of a couple married for over 65 years and who never miss sending Valentines to each other and never going to sleep without saying those wonderful words ‘I love you’ goes to show that romantic love is not only for the young.

There again looking back it was good fun to keep everyone guessing when Valentines were sent and received. Then the amazement and even shock would soon follow when assumptions were proved wrong. Never did the early Christian martyr Valentine realise that many centuries later he would be remembered in such ways.

The Bible tells us that God is the source of all love because ‘God is love’. One of the most treasured verses of Scripture is that ‘God so loved the world that He gave his only son’. Unlike the Valentine tradition of anonymity, God freely and openly declares his love for us.

We see the fullness of his love in Jesus who lived among us and in word and deed lived out the compassion care and forgiveness of God. Jesus still comes to those who believe in him, forgiving our sins and to leading us in the ways of peace. He comes to challenge our complacency and indifference to the forgotten and suffering in our world and to die on a cross to redeem us from our selfishness and sin.

The Bible is full of God’s promises and expressions of love and compassion, truly a message of love to a loveless world.  An eternal message especially for you and signed by the Creator of the world!