Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is special at our house, for a couple of reasons.  First, it is my husband's birthday. And second, it is the day that we adopted our dog, Charlie.  I like to describe Charlie as having been a "Wal-Mart special".

It happened on Valentine's Day afternoon, four years ago.  Younger Son and I had gone to the Wal-Mart shopping center on an errand.  As we pulled into the parking lot he pointed out people milling around an old pick-up truck with a sign on it:  "Free Puppies".  He asked if we could stop and look. Our former dog, Max, had died a few months earlier.  Max had been quite the "handful", and I was not eager to get another dog.  I said, "Maybe on the way out."  After completing our errand, we headed home.  I asked, "Do you want to just stop and look?"  "I guess so," was the reply.

There were several puppies in the kennels, but I was drawn to just one.  As I gathered this Aussie shepherd/blue tick coon hound mix in my arms, I knew I never wanted to let him go.  On the ride home, I've never seen a more terrified dog.  He was drooling from anxiety (a habit he continued for several months).  Hubster was stunned to receive a puppy as a birthday present!  Younger Son had told me at the pick-up truck, "I bear absolutely no responsibility for this!"  Well, Charlie has become a tremendous blessing to all of us.  He is dearly loved.

This family story reminds me of my place in God's family.

4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"…
Galatians 4:4-6

This is love!  Don't you see how adoption is at the heart of it?  We did not first love God, but He first loved us.  We were "mutts".  We were not His "natural-born" sons/daughters, or His "only-begotten" sons/daughters. We are His through adoption.  Hallelujah!  This is the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who Is The Best Valentine.

But God demonstrated His own love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

There is a rather erotic movie which opened recently.  It is the sequel to an even more sickening movie of similar name which premiered right around Valentine's Day two years ago.  In fact, both of these movies are an insult to true love.

But, God does not merely illustrate or typify love - - - He IS love, in all its beauty, in all its glory. His love poured out on us truly is "the greatest love of all".   You may be facing a lonely Valentine's Day. In fact, the holiday may itself be repugnant because of all the emphasis on romantic love when you are not "there" right now.

Regardless of your present circumstances, on this Valentine's Day, you can reach out and experience God's love.  It is never-ending and always available.  Don't turn away.  Whether you would be reaching out to Him for the first time today for eternal salvation or whether you are already a disciple of Jesus Christ and needing a reminder....He is there for you.

https://youtu.be/Fla6EO07I3E

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Father, thank you for the gift of Your Son, Who is Love personified.  Today, I celebrate Your love, which is incomparable.  No one can ever or will ever love me like You do.  To be loved, adopted, cherished, made new by the God of all the Universe is both inconceivable and unfathomable.  I don't pretend to understand what caused you to do what you did for me.  My love for You is paltry in comparison.  Give me a Valentine's heart - - a Christ-like heart. Help me to love more like You do, precious Savior! It is in Your name, Lord Jesus, I pray, amen.

The Fix Is In

Today I learned that one of my beloved ones received some disheartening news.  He is discouraged about it.  I wish that I could "fix things" for him in this situation.  It hurts my heart to see him suffer, even though some of it is of his own making.  Especially since that is the case...

When I was a child my daddy would sometimes get a "switch" (a small tree branch for you uninitiated out there) and give me "a switchin'".  I never wanted it, always deserved it (being quite the headstrong child) and still remember it, all these days later.  The sting of the switch was short-lived, but there is one thing about those occasions that lives on in my memory.  My daddy would almost always say, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."

I never believed him then.  In fact, it made me mad, because I thought it a ridiculous statement!  But, as a parent now, I truly understand.  It hurt him to see me suffer, even in that small way.  It hurt his heart more than the sting of the hickory switch hurt my little, scrawny legs.

When Adam and Eve so horribly messed things up for all mankind in the Garden of Eden, don't you know it hurt God's heart terribly, even though He knew they were going to do it?  And, don't you know that He said to Himself, "One of these days I'm gonna fix that."  In fact, He proclaimed that He would, as early as Genesis 3:15.

Many, at Christmas, find the seasonal celebrations unbearable because they have been separated from loved ones.  Sometimes a loved one has died, for instance.  When man sinned, a horrible breach occurred between God and man.  The pain we feel when separated from a loved one is only a taste of the pain God felt when our sin destroyed the fellowship He had formerly enjoyed with mankind.  Oh how He must have grieved that loss...after all, our race was created for fellowship with Him.   And, we had so broken, so blemished that relationship.  Not even "a switchin' " could fix it.

When it was time for Jesus to be born, do you think God may have said something like, "Finally, the time is now right for the ultimate, total solution to be given!"  All those centuries between Eden and Bethlehem, God interacted with mankind in various ways, knowing that only one way could fully reconcile all mankind to Him.  Jesus' birth was the commencement, in our time-bound world, of that eternal plan.

I watched a good, but weird, movie today.  A friends of many decades and I get together every now and then for a meal.  Today, it was a movie and a meal.  Anyway, the movie was weird in that there were aliens (weirdness assured when aliens are involved).  Beyond that, though, there was an aspect of the movie in which Time was fluid.  Time was not the linear, orderly, irrevocable thing to which we are accustomed, to which we are bound in this earthly life.

God is not bound by Time.  For God - - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - - the "fix was in" before creation occurred.  Before Time was created, God had decided "I'm gonna fix that."  At Advent, we celebrate The Fix that came, as we anticipate each year the birth of our Savior, Christ, the Lord.  I'm so glad He came and made things right.

4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Galatians 4:4-6 KJV

Hallelujah!  The "fix" is in!