Valentine’s Day … soon upon us! Cards and chocolates, red roses and romantic evenings … I recall the thrill as a teenager of receiving cards with cryptic messages and no signature. Does that still happen in this electronic age? And what’s it all about? Love … love … love (echoes of The Beatles, for those of us of a certain age!)
Often at weddings I will quote from a poem by Godfrey Rust, called “Welcome to the Real World”, which talks about what real love is.
… Love isn’t what you fall in.
It’s what pulls you out
of what you fall in.
Love isn’t a good feeling.
Love is doing good
when you’re feeling bad.
Love means hanging in
when everyone else
shrugs their shoulders
and goes off to McDonalds …
I recently came across these words of an American theologian: “When a human being reaches out to comfort, to touch, to bridge the gap separating each of us from everyone else, God comes to life on that act of reaching, of touching, of bridging. The act is love and God is love.” Of course, relationships can falter and break down. There is no denying that feelings and sentiments can fade and disappear. But love is more than butterflies in the stomach and cloud nine. It is an action that is always turned towards the other, for their wellbeing. For all those preparing for weddings this year, I sincerely hope that there will be, in your relationships, plenty of room for love, plenty of room for God. And I wish that we may all create enough room to reach out to others.
Let’s look for ways in which to show God’s love to our neighbours, to make a difference for good in a world becoming increasingly self-centred. May we all know more of his love and spread it around!
Blessings, Janet
The Revd Janet Tebby, Feb 2015