Love is in the air…at least that is what the retail world would have us believe! Hearts are dangling from store ceilings, plastered on shop windows, and utilized in various displays advertising everything from candy, cards and candles to flowers, toys and jewelry. After all, it is the month of Valentine Day! Nevertheless, as quickly as the month of February passes, so will the shelf life of commercial “love”.

So what is love? The dictionary provides us with the following definitions: affection (feeling with warm regards); fondness (a rather strong liking for a person or thing): and infatuation (extravagant attraction or attachment to a person or thing, usually of short duration.) Best described, love is an elated feeling followed by a closeness that may or may not develop into a relationship. Our love is usually conditional and based upon another’s feelings toward us. Love may vary in degree, and vacillate in intensity! Human love is fragile and uncertain!

How wonderful that there is a real love, a true love, an unshakeable love, an unending love, a permanent love…the love of God! His love rises above any ‘warm and fuzzy’ emotional platitudes, and is best clarified through Scripture.

According to the language of the New Testament, God’s love is characterized as “agape” love; a love that freely sacrifices yet looks for nothing in return. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (I John 4:10) “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 5:13)

We cannot gauge God’s love by mortal definitions or by man’s careless use of the word. For this reason we must again turn to Scripture in order to gain even the slightest measure of God’s love. In Matthew 3:17 and Luke 3:22 we are introduced to, and made fully aware of, the intensity of God’s love for His Son, Jesus Christ! “Thou art my beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) Three times God the Father proclaimed these words from the highest Heaven. The potency of this Father/Son (God the Father; Jesus Christ the Son) relationship is central to our gaining any understanding of the depth of God’s infinite love for Man, and fundamental to our comprehending the wonder and magnitude of God sending His precious Son, His beloved Son, to die for our transgressions! “…God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.” (I john 4:9b)

On Valentine’s Day, many will receive candy, perfume or flowers as tokens of someone’s love. However, unlike those mementos that will perish, evaporate or die, God had given us a gift that will never perish…the gift of everlasting salvation! Here is a gift of love the never fails, but eternally delivers! “He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) Here is a love that provides eternal life to all who will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior!

With the bloodstained backdrop of Calvary attesting to God’s everlasting mercy and endless grace (Titus 2:11), Jesus’ crucifixion is the epitome of selfless love; a love that will never fail, never wane, never die! “…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5b)

God loved the world to such an extent that He gave His only begotten Son so that all – every man, woman and child – can have eternal life. (John 3:16) This powerful truth should propel each of to our knees in tearful praise as we pray for total surrender to our loving Lord. “And thou shalt love the lord they God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

Nancy Hamilton