“We need to go Galentine’s shopping,” my thirteen-year-old daughter informed me.
“Galentine’s?”
“Yes,” she affirmed, explaining she and her older sister planned to celebrate their sister love, a “Gal- Valentine’s Day”, with a special sister movie night on Valentine’s Day.
Throughout the next week each teen-aged daughter excitedly shared her plans for surprising her sister. From gifts, to acts of service, to compliments recorded in cards, each was bent on showering her sister with love and appreciation.
I smiled, marveling how I was not nearly so mature at their ages to understand the gift of love was not limited to romantic relationships. Love is God’s gift to us. When we love others, we outwardly show we know God.
I John 4:7 tells us “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (NIV) This Scripture reminds us we don’t need to wait on any human to show us love, we just need to remember how much God loves us, and how He showed that love. (John 3:16)
Then we put His love into motion: allow it to fill us, overflow from us, to others who need a little love and understanding. I John 4:11, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (NIV)
Recall the last time you did a simple act of service, or offered the gift of a kind word or remembrance? Remember how great it felt to see the heart-warming, the appreciative thank you from the receiver, the sincere words of thank you? That alone is worth taking a moment to love on someone. But God has even more for us: we are promised in I John 4:12, “if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”
In this use of the word “complete”, complete refers to mature. David Guzik, a theologian and commentary author states it this way: “Love is the constant, greatest evidence of the presence and work of God in Jesus Christ.” Allowing His love to flow through us helps build a deeper faith, a stronger faith, and a more mature faith.
Girls (and guys) without a romantic attachment are often down, depressed, and distressed on Valentine’s Day. While that holiday was intended to celebrate romantic love, (when St. Valentine would marry couples against war orders of that time), we can each celebrate another of God’s children: a sister, friend, or a neighbor.
Maybe you, like me, have never before heard of, much less considered, celebrating a variation of Valentine’s Day. Yet, what better use of God’s love than to pour it out on others who may be particularly lonely that holiday? And, what a great testimony of God’s love working in each of us when we love on one another!
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for love. Your love. Your gift of love that flows through me from You. Please grow me, guide me, and give me a heart to see those You put in my path today to love. May Your love flow through me and touch them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.