Valentine’s Day is a day to shower our love on spouses, children, family and friends, often in extravagant ways. According to the National Retail Federation, lovebirds are expected to spend about $2 billion dollars today on flowers alone! The most popular Valentine’s Day flower is, of course, the rose, with over 250 million grown specifically for the holiday. Consumers will also spend $1.7 billion on chocolates and candies, and another $1 billion on greeting cards. When it comes to expressing our love on Valentine’s Day, we Americans really go all-out!
Like any wife and mother I enjoy flowers, chocolates, love letters, a romantic dinner with my husband and handmade cards from my children. I look forward to surprising them with gifts that show my love and words that tell them how much I care. But in the midst of all the tender affection, sugary delights and special trinkets, my heart can’t help but consider the extravagant love of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Am I as out-and-out in my love for Jesus as I am in my love for my husband? Do I unfurl my colors for Christ like the blood-red brilliance of a dozen roses? Or do I hide my love away—ashamed, embarrassed, cowardly?
Truthfully I often struggle with feeling as though my love for Jesus is not enough, that it is lacking in some way. I become discouraged and try to muster up love for God by doing things I think would be pleasing to Him, without realizing how incredibly backwards this is! We do not buy flowers or write poems for our loved ones in order to love them more; we do these things because we already love them! And how did we come to love them? We spent time getting to know them.
God's word says, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19, emphasis added). Our love for God is not something we can simply muster up by sheer force of will; it is always a response to His love for us! And the more we get to know that love, the more we meditate on it and believe it, the more our love for Him will grow into what we desire it to be. We must stop poring over the insufficiency of our own love and start dwelling on the all-sufficiency of Christ's! Remember: love is a fruit of our relationship with Jesus; faith is the root.
Charles Spurgeon once said, "Love believed is the mother of love returned." Do we really believe that God loves us? That He loved us before time began? Before we even existed? Then let us consider this marvelous truth in all its glory: Jesus loves me! Jesus chose me. Jesus redeemed me from slavery and called me out of darkness. Jesus has forgiven me and has betrothed me to Himself for all eternity! O what sweet songs the Savior sings over us! What love He has lavished upon us! Let us endeavor to know this love that surpasses all others—the love that bled and died to save us from our sins. When the world looks at us, may they see a people in love—head over heels, swept off our feet and smitten with our Savior, Jesus Christ! And when they ask us why, let us shout it from the rooftops: We love because He first loved us!