Despite my absence from posting any blog entries for a while, my life has continued. While many things are launched with high expectations and quickly fade, my blog went from mediocre at best to nil at warp speed. My apologies to both my faithful readers (my mom and…me).
While you’re here…
Let’s not dis’ Valentine’s Day too much. Sure, Colonel Luther Valentine may have not thought this thing all the way through when he invented this “Day of Love” in the fall of 1704 while dredging through the marshland of southern Beliz, but he had good intentions.
“C’mon guys, let’s set aside a day to really out-do ourselves in showing love to our ladies. That way, every other day of the year we can be lazy, inconsiderate, not tell them how much we appreciate them and get away with it. It’ll be marvelous! And it needs a mascot. We can create a little shrimpy dude with wings and a bow and arrow to help propogate the message. He’ll be the symbol of love and it’ll be glorious!….as soon as we get out of this marshland.”
OK. So maybe it didn’t happen like that.
Sure it’s been hijacked by the card companies, online flower shops, chocolate makers, restaurants and now pizza joints (Papa John’s “heart shaped pizza” is a promoted trend on Twitter at the moment.)
Valentine’s Day should be celebrated as anything else should be: in truth. This is the only reason we can celebrate in anything. The epitome of God’s love, Jesus, is reason to rejoice daily not yearly. Any other celebration would result in self-emphasis and boasting in temporal relationships marred by imperfect people. But when we boast in His love, the only love we have and can give, there can be worship, true joy and true satisfaction that lasts longer than when the flowers die, chocolates gets melty and the heart shapped pizza has rotten on the shelf because no one in their right mind would order a pizza on Valentine’s Day unless you want to totally underwhelm your girlfriend or spouse or, if single, yourself. Seriously, if you order it to eat all by yourself on February 14th then I’m sure there would be tear stains adorning the box by the time you’ve finished the last slice.
Let’s remember that love does endure. God’s love endures. Nothing else. Whether you’re single or have been married 50 years we can celebrate His love today that allows us to pass it on to others.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Psalms 33:22
jb
justinbedingfield.com 