Greater Love

As everyone knows, Thursday was Valentine's Day.  Personally, I hate the holiday and think it is ridiculous.  My thoughts are, if you can't show someone you love them the other 364 days of the year, why change for one day?  That being said, I have a challenge for you.

I want you to make a list of the people you love - the people you would literally do anything for...the people you would lay down your life for.  When I say that, I don't mean it metaphorically.  I want you to write down the people who, if there was bullet coming towards them, you would jump in front of it without hesitation.

Now, make a list of the people you know love you, who would die for you.  Which list is shorter?

For me, the people I would die for is much longer than the ones I know would die for me.  Perhaps it's because we don't express how much we love someone enough.  But I think it's more because people, especially myself, have a hard time accepting love freely because we don't think we deserve it.  We think we are so broken and ruined that we can't possibly be loved.  We really do accept the love we think we deserve. 

But love is the sole reason Jesus died for us.  His profound Love is what saves us from an eternity of suffering.  He showed us the extent His love in giving us everything He had, including His life.  He even says, "Greater Love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)  It's true that we don't deserve anyone's Love, especially His, but if the Creator and Sustainer of all things still loves us, even with our failures and sins, it's okay to let other people love you.  And it's even better to love others without exception.  Because true love is knowing all a persons fears and failures, yet still loving them.  Jesus showed us that quite plainly.

So for every day of the year, even Valentine's Day, let Love rule. The Bible says,  "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  I guess I'm trying to say is above all else, love unconditionally.  It is what humans long for the most because we are nothing without love.