As I’m sure you know today is Valentine’s Day (if you’re just finding out there’s still time to run to the store, but hurry). Today we celebrate St. Valentine, the patron saint of beekeepers and other stuff; I’m not exactly up to date on my saints. In our modern context, it is a day we use to celebrate the joy of love. We all want to be loved and have love and give love. And not just that romantic kind either.
We find a deep rest and comfort when we return to a place where we are loved unconditionally. Those are places where we can lay down the armor we wear to make it through the day. It is so important to find a place where your wounds can be exposed with the knowledge that those that reach for them only seek to bring comfort.
Knowing how vital it is to find these places for yourself, it is equally vital that you provide these places for the people around you.
First Peter 4:8-11 tells us, “8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Within each person is the capacity to love and forgive. It is in finding the space in your heart to let other people in that we find true healing and community. Through love we are able to serve one another, and in serving we can help them find the joy in Christ that we have found.
Get out there and love someone.