Tomorrow is celebrated as Valentine’s Day. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning
of the traditional pre-Easter Lenten season. My thoughts have been turning to the theme of love that
these days represent.
For
over 38 years, I have been loved by and in love with a remarkable woman. My wife, Beth. Before either of us really knew what
was happening, we found ourselves enamored with each other. At our first meeting at college, our
friends left us talking together and it was much later that we realized they
had all left us. We were married
when we were 20 years old and have been blessed with a marriage and mission
together that we could never have planned. I have learned love (and am learning love) by being loved by
Beth. She is always my champion
when no one knows better that I haven’t earned that honor. She has shared our ministry together in
ways that few will ever know. She
raised our three sons with love and devotion. Lately, she has loved me back to health after heart surgery. In all those ways and through all these
years, she has loved me. I am so
grateful that God brought us together and kept us together when love was so new
to us.
I
was about 9 years old when God’s love got through to me. I remember the conviction that came
upon me. It was real. I needed a Savior. Someone asked me once, what a 9 year
old could do that would be so sinful.
I was as lost and hopeless as the greatest of sinners. I knew He had forgiven me and died on
the Cross for my sins because of His love for me. God had come into my heart. He showed me His love.
I had been changed. I remember
not wanting to do anything that would hurt the one I loved. I had been changed and am being changed
by His love.
Valentine’s
Day and Ash Wednesday. Two days
which remind me that I have learned love by being loved. I have been changed by the love of God
and the love of my wife. Love
someone today. You may never know
how much they are learning about love by being loved by you. Let God love you and love through you!
