Blood red actually.
Valentine’s Day is upon us, and I read post after post on how it feels to be in love, how it looks to be in love, how to keep yourself in love, how to be glad if you are not.
Chocolates, roses, hearts, sappy or sultry speed-up-the-pulse love stories.
The cards in the aisle tell us what we want to hear – you’re the only one, you complete my life, together is the only place we need to be.
Meanwhile, the teenage girl puts on lipstick, and tears ruin the mascara she thinks still can’t make her beautiful. The college girl daydreams about the bad boy who will always choose heartbreak over the idea of happiness in her head.
And there’s the wife who wonders why her husband will not answer her calls or answer her questions, and the mother who holds her babies tight but forgets to hug their daddy.
Is it really a surprise women are still seduced by a snake?
No. I was.
Not in the present in-your-face, Hollywood kind of temptation, but the one that said – you need more. Your God is not enough.
It is that lie that lingers. That fake love.
That jagged edge that slowly tugs at your thoughts and your time and unravels what you know to be true.
And the consequences are like venom.
Those consequences, those hard lessons, they leave them off the pretty pink cards we buy at the store.
We’ve felt them, the tears over hurt feelings not forgotten, the fight that pushed him out of the bed, the self image that shattered with a broken heart.
And not your heart. His.
Scripture tells us we were chosen by God – holy and beloved. We were created and redeemed, ransomed with a price.
A perfect love. Blood red.
“And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
Revelations 1 tells us He is our Prince; our happily ever after.
The red letters run throughout Scripture:
John 10:10 – The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Matthew 22:37-39 – Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 17:11 – I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
Jesus. He loves us. Enough to face a death we could not bare, not only the agony of the cross but the torment of sin that weighed heavy as hell itself.
And yet, we forget. We forget and we find interest and meaning and reason in a world shaded in deception and darkness.
Yet, the truth is still there in black and white. Love God. Honor Him. Don’t just walk away from evil. Run.
Lord, protect us from evil.
Jesus, give us the desire to love you more.
This Valentines, let’s fall in love. No need to look any farther than that Holy book on the shelf. He is there. He wants us back, and He is after your heart. All of it. No matter what we’ve done; that price was paid; that past erased.
He will show us how to be His love to a broken spouse, a broken child, a broken friend, a broken world. If we want Him – really want Him.
Jesus can be our excitement. He is our pleasure. He is enough. Together, with Him, is the only place we need to be.
That’s why we can get out our red and our cards and our chocolates and go share some love.
And not the Hollywood kind. That’ll leave you bitten and broken.
The real kind. Written in red.
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