God's Valentine

When our son was in kindergarten, his class studied Martin Luther King, Jr. for January. He marched out of school talking about him a mile a minute, so I said,”He was a good man who stood for justice and peace.”   And my son looked at me with his serious face on and said, “Mommy, justice is a ‘God-word,’ just like love.”  It's a humbling moment when your five-year-old is smarter than you are.

Valentine's Day always makes me think about love.  I know Valentine’s Day is supposed to be based on a saint and everything, but it strikes me in practice as a “Hallmark holiday” somebody stuck a robe on and started calling “Reverend.” When I see all that red cellophane and all those stuffed bears clogging up the CVS aisle, it actually makes me a little sad.  Will a little sucrose heart-shaped vitamin with “Be Mine” stamped on it really be the cure for what ails us in the love department?  Can a Whitman’s sampler really get us through a long dark night of the soul? (“Yes, yes it can!” I hear the chocoholics shout).

Maybe our task as pastors and preachers is to point folks away from the temporary sugar high of the Valentine’s Day culture to a God who wants to say to every yearning heart, “Be Mine.”  Maybe we can use this Hallmark holiday to acknowledge the valentines from God that have been tucked into the corners of our lives: all those good gifts of God that go  unnoticed over time. God’s valentines often come in human packages, in our families and friends, in our pastors and teachers, in our congregations and even in our enemies. Maybe we can explore more deeply the kind of love with which God so loved the world and what that kind of love means for us  and our life together.  This deep love sits with those who suffer and reaches out to people who are lost, lonely, and in despair and refuses to abandon them even when they prove difficult to love.    

By all means, we should express our love and appreciation to people in our lives this Valentine’s Day.  We don’t do that nearly enough.  But we also need to remember that love is washing feet and sitting with and praying through.  Love is not cute or heart-shaped.  Love is a God made flesh that was killed on a cross and was raised from the dead.  It is a Lenten journey and an Easter proclamation.  It is serious life-claiming, life-changing, business.  Love is, first and foremost, a “God-word.”