Cross

Valentine’s Day is here. It’s a day when our society encourages couples to take the extra steps to show their love for one another. Give flowers. Give chocolates. Go out to dinner. Celebrate love.

Some of you reading this right now are lonely. Some have been abused or hurt deeply by a spouse. Some may be single without an earthly spouse. But all of us as Christians together have a heavenly husband, and oh how great is our Groom’s love toward us!

Scripture is full of the love of God — the cross being the supreme expression of that unfathomable love.

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest stumbling blocks in life is believing that God really does love me and that he is pleased with me. This constant insecurity I live with has been difficult on my marriage. At times, it drives me to lay down expectations my earthly husband was never intended to meet. On other occasions, it has driven me to doubt his love and his sincerity, not because of anything he has done, but because my doubt of God’s love is transferred as doubt of my husband’s.

And then there are all the times that I try to earn my husband’s love because I just can’t seem to get it in my head that this dear man genuinely loves me unconditionally, without exception. His love has never depended on how I looked, how much I weighed, or what I had achieved in or out of the home. He just loves me.

God in his grace and providence gave me a husband who knows my doubting and has diligently reminded me of God’s love over the years. He has even endured my mocking and scoffing as time and again he would quietly and gently relate: Jesus loves you, Luma.

One day in particular, about ten years ago, I insisted that those were trivial meaningless words thrown around in our superficial evangelical society. My wise husband, who knows that thinking is one of my gifts, asked me if I would be willing to spend one full day meditating on that statement Jesus loves you, Luma. I did. God, in his great mercy and love in Christ Jesus, has slowly made that statement blossom in my heart and mind little by little since that time.

I tend to be a more utilitarian woman, eschewing flowers and chocolates. But God has been using my husband over the years to soften me. Tulips are my favorite flowers, and I have began buying them for myself and letting my husband know that I would rejoice to receive them. I have also started enjoying chocolate. Not that these are marks of my “arrival” at anything, only the evidences of the personal softening of my heart — a heart which too often has doubted the love of Jesus.

Embracing the gospel has freed me to trust the love of my earthly husband, who has always been good to speak to me the love of our heavenly husband.

The dinner, the flowers, and the chocolate may or may not be there, but it really doesn’t matter. The best Valentine’s gift I could ever receive is a husband who is constantly reminding me, Jesus loves you, Luma.

As someone who has lived a life of doubt in that statement, I want to encourage you today. No matter where you are in this life, or what circumstance you are dealing with regarding earthly love, meditate on this: Jesus loves you.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

by Luma Simms

heart

playback.

You could call it a re-run, and no matter what channel, it’s always the same one… the story, that is. My outward actions might look like TBN, but my mind is channeling HBO, because the static flow in my mind is churning this anger against my brothers and sisters; callousing hatred ’till it turns into blisters.

You see, I’ve got a rough heart that pursues only pride, and boy, I’ve tired swallowing, but it just comes back up time after time. You know, I should clean that, because surely no one wants it, but just like a dog, I return to my vomit. My heart is bulimic and my soul is exhausted.

I’ve fallen in this hole, with the pieces of me crying out to be whole – even more, to be holy! But the whole He requires is a puzzle much too large. Besides, I lost my pieces between the pillows of the couch.

The failures you’ve counted in seconds and minutes were taken care of in six hours of darkness. I went through a week-ness that can’t be measured, because in your darkest hour, you were still my pleasure. I was in love with your present, not your future.

And to answer the question, no you’re not worthy. My death was the punishment you were deserving, I paid the time you should be serving, preserving My glory and reserving your spot in My family.

My guarantee was my engagement, which meant I’d never leave you or forsake, but that I’d take you to be My bride. We’d be lawfully wed, only the vows are a little different – we don’t part after death.

Becuase you see, you are My masterpiece, the act of Me painting My mastery over your apathy. See, Calvary was My poetry, and the Cross was My love letter, promising not just better, but perfect – unfettered to work it out and finish this art that I started before – not painting your heart, but painting Mine over yours.

So yes, you are my canvas. You are My potter’s clay. You are the blank Word document that bears My Word, worded in such a way to make people say, “Yo, word.”

You are My sandlot, empty and barren until I came and laid down My foundation, topped with the Cornerstone the other builders rejected. I erected the walls and prevented the falls pre-empted by sin’s call which has tempted you all and sentenced your small fate. Then I built upon you a roof of justice – a tower so tall that it points only to Me.

In fact, this house looks so good, I’ll make it My temple, starting to resemble the image of Me, the image you see when you look at My people and find infinity and divinity inside this bit of humanity. My Trinity definitively resting and completely investing in you.

Because YOU…

Are my Canvas.

(Nathan Costiuc)