Today's Word

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Today is Valentine’s Day. I’m sure it is named after a Saint, but I have no idea who he was or what he did, and it really isn’t important. When I was young, Valentine’s Day didn’t either exist, or it certainly hadn’t reached Yorkshire. Someone said yesterday that next to Christmas, we spend more on presents than any other day of the year now. There is a trend now for people to send Valentine’s cards and presents to their pet dogs!

The whole idea of the day is to celebrate love and to express feelings of love that perhaps don’t get aired too often during the rest of the year and that is, I suppose, a good thing, to tell someone you love them. But just to say the words is hardly sufficient and sometimes doesn’t need to be said at all because the actions of one person to another can display love far more clearly. My mum and dad rarely, if ever, told us they loved us, but our home was filled with love because their actions and care towards us gave us a far greater understanding of what love really is. And if we want the ultimate example of love in action, one person giving their life to save another is that example.

Which takes us to the verse in the Bible which is the ultimate of love in action: “Herein is love, not that we loved God. but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (sacrifice) for our sin”. The same thought is expressed by Paul in Romans, “But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

In whatever way we might celebrate Valentine’s Day, just let us take some time out to celebrate God’s ultimate gift of love towards us in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church 

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