Love

Valentine's Day is just around the corner... huge red hearts hang in every store window. Pink & white heart-shaped candies line every grocery store shelf. Beautifully decorated cardboard mailboxes await every school-aged child, and over the next two days, little love notes will pass from one hand to another (along with a wink and a smile!). Florists will stay open late to assemble bouquets of lovely garden delights, and folks will scramble aimlessly in search of that perfect little gift.

But what is love exactly??

Oh, ask any joe on the street and he'll gladly pass along his own thoughts on the subject. Check with our favorite Merriam Webster and enjoy a whole litany of selections. Or... consult your favorite Hallmark store-- you're sure to find oodles of eye-opening definitions there!

But are any of these even close to the real thing?? Will any of these avenues point to true LOVE? Oh, it's possible, I guess. But if you're interested-- this Valentine's Day-- in celebrating love in its truest form, you need only look to One.

Today, amidst the hustle and bustle of an extremely hectic household, I was gently reminded of this wonderful truth:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

Perfect love... given for us... almost 2000 years ago.

Now that's something to celebrate~

The Power of the Cross

(listen here)

Oh to see the dawn of the darkest day

Christ on the road to calvary

Tried by sinful men, torn and beaten then

Nailed to a cross of wood

This the pow'r of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Took the blame, bore the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross

Oh to see the pain written on Your face

Bearing the awesome weight of sin

Ev'ry bitter thought, ev'ry evil deed

Crowning your bloodstained brow

Now the daylight flees, now the ground beneath

Quakes as its maker bows his head

Curtain torn in two, dead are raised to life

'Finished!' the vict'ry cry

Oh to see my name written in the wound

For through Your suf'fring I am free

Death is crushed to death, life is mine to live

Won through Your selfless love

This the pow'r of the cross

Son of God slain for us

What a life, what a cost

We stand forgiven at the cross

-- Stuart Townend & Keith Getty