February 11, 2010

So, here we are, February 11th, just a couple days away is... Valentine's Day - February 14th. I'll be the first to tell you that it's NOT my favorite holiday - not quite as bad as 'Sweetest Day,', but it's right up there. Apparently I'm not the norm when it comes to Americans. As I was watching the Super Bowl last Sunday, near the end, I noticed a commercial by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart chose to spend their 2 1/2 million dollars for their 30 seconds on an ad that tried to get viewers to realize that Wal-Mart is a great place for guys to buy Valentine's Day gifts. Think of all the things that Wal-Mart could have focused on and they chose Valentine's Day. This got me thinking, and I did a little research. Last year, in the middle of this deep recession, Americans spent - get this - 14 billion dollars on Valentine's Day related items - flowers, cards, jewelry. If money talks, then Valentine's Day is a big deal, so I thought I would chose a devotion for tonight that was somewhat related to Valentine's Day.

To illustrate the point that Luther makes in our devotion for tonight - imagine that you had that 14 billion that Americans spend on Valentine's Day - that you were a billionaire 14 times over - and that you closed your eyes - opened a phone book and put your finger down on a name - then you handed over that 14 billion - which was every last penny you had - to that complete stranger whose name was underneath your finger. Or, crazier yet, you handed it over to your worst enemy - ridiculous! If we are using earthly terms, then there aren't enough riches in the world to illustrate or compare how much God sacrificed when He sent his one and only dear Son into this world to die for us. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Think of it - we were God's arch-enemies - and He decides to sacrifice his only dear Son to redeem us - ridiculous by human standards - kind of hard to wrap our brains around. That's the kind of love that God has for us - undeserved love - grace.

So, this Valentine's Day, as we are giving and receiving Valentines or gifts, or whatever we do to show our love ones that we love them, let's take a little time to receive the Valentine that God sent us - His Word - where we find throughout the pages, story after story about God displaying that ridiculous love to people who didn't deserve it.

Sometimes I think we have become somewhat matter of fact when it comes to God's love. "Jesus loves me this I know" and we accept that as fact - and that is a good thing! But, sometimes it might do us good to step back and really think about how crazy amazing God's love and God's grace really is. When we begin to really think about this, our hearts will want to thank God for this love. How do we do this? By following the instructions detailed in God's Valentine - all those instructions can be summed up in a single command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So we thank God for his love by reflecting some of that love to those around us.

Dear God,

You tell us that 'We love because You first loved us.' And boy oh boy, do You love us. You love us more than we can really comprehend or get our heads around. We want to show our thanks to you for your love and we know we can do this by following your commands. So we come to you tonight and ask that you would give us the strength and the wisdom to carry out your commands that are summed up in a single command to love one another.

In the name of Jesus - who You sent in love,

Amen