Love Is A Verb!

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14

The Super Bowl is history, Taylor made the game, and the Chiefs are once again champions! Now, Valentine’s Day is upon us, and this year, we have the unique opportunity to celebrate Ash Wednesday on the same day! This rariety offers us a chance to celebrate the people we love while celebrating the greatest love of all. Love is used as a verb during these events showing love in action.

One of the most meaningful parties in the kindergaten school year was always the Valentine’s party. It was a fun process for the children to create their own box in which to receive the Valentine cards which were sent to them from their classmates. Each child had their own list of the names of every one in the class which they would use to address each valentine with TO: on one line and FROM: on the other. Besides being fun, it was a great lesson in writing, letters, and spelling. The delight on their faces as they read and opened each Valentine was always fulfilling for them and us teachers. The love and acceptance they felt was so touching.

The gift of Ash Wednesday coinciding with Valentine’s Day this year is somewhat like a giant Valentine from Jesus to us. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the burning of the Palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday processional. The ashes are made into a paste and mixed with olive oil to make the paste used to draw a cross on the forehead. The ashes remind us that dust we are and to dust we will return.

The journey of Lent before us is a time to build up our relationship with God. We have forty days to discover and walk through the ways and the degree to which Jeuss loves us. We prepare our hearts for the incredible offering of love that Jesus made on the cross for each of us. It is said that the greatest grand gesture of love in the history of the world was when Jesus stretched out His arms for you and for me on the cross. Love is a verb!

The one time of the year when chocolate takes the shape of a heart is the time we celebrate love. It’s heartwarming to see real love in action. The kind of love that isn’t self centered or self indulgent, but rather the kind of love that is sacrificial and selfless and only meant to be given away.

Chocolate filled heart boxes are everywhere as signs of our affection for those loved ones in our lives. Consider the ashes of Ash Wednesday as God’s committment of love and sacrifice to us.

This week we have a chance to recommit our time, energy, love and passion to the things John Wesley thought would honor God. He said, Do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, in all the times we can, to all the people we can, as along as ever we can.

It’s so fitting to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday together this year. No one’s life is all chocolate, even those who we are sure have it all together. No one’s life is all ashes even though we can sometimes feel that way. Our lives are a blend of both chocolate and ashes just like wheat and weeds that grow together or sheep and goats that graze together. God has joined us together and His love is abundant enough for us all.

As we start our 40 day journey and pilgrimage, it is an individual journey for each of us. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day by biting the chocolate ears off the bunny, remember the ashes on the forehead and that Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are pretty compatible. May we taste the chocolaty sweetness of the abundant life God offers even as we wash the gritty ashes of our messy life away. copied

This year, let’s make love a verb!