It’s FEBRUARY!! I love the month of FEBRUARY for many reasons, but mostly because it’s my birthday month and it is the month to buy all kinds of fancy chocolate on sale after Valentines Day. As a pastor, February is a golden opportunity to talk about LOVE. Not just the “feeling” of the emotion but more so, the one who is Love. God is Love. Jesus is Love. The Holy Spirit is Love. And to be honest, right now, we need as many messages about the Love of God and loving others as God loves us as we can give and receive.
This need to hear words of love, hope, and encouragement got me thinking about letters, notes, cards, my Dad had given me many years ago. When Daddy was serving in the South Pacific during WWII, and then whenever and wherever he traveled in his military career, his mother saved every piece (or almost) of correspondence from him. Then, after Daddy married my mom, Gramma Sota (that’s what we called her) saved all the cards, notes, letters that my mom sent her with info about us kids, what was happening in their lives, all the everyday ordinary beauty of life. Late, after my parents had both passed, we found some letters my parents had written each other the two times Daddy served during wartime or long times of separation due to different deployments. They were sweet, hopeful, uplifting, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart breaking. I have a picture of my mom when she was in her mid-twenties, dressed up and done up, posing on her front porch. On the back of the picture she wrote, “All dressed up to show you how much I love you and miss you.” She sent it to him while he was in serving in the Korean War.
All that to say, when we are or seem separated from others, others we love, others we care for, we find ways to communicate our love for them is steadfast, that we keep them with us, that we miss them but are filled with joy and hope for the day we are reunited.
We send love letters. God has sent us MANY love letters to us. From the Creation of All Things, the warnings, teachings, and promises of the prophets, Jesus himself, the Word made flesh – a living love letter – to holy texts and scriptures that teach us, remind us, and call us back to God’s love. What is particular powerful to me about God’s love letters, they aren’t mushy, emotional fluff. They are the nitty, gritty of Love, a Love that will give God’s self over to be sacrificed for your best, for your love in return, for your true freedom and life eternal.
As disciples of Jesus, people who are not just believers, but doers of God’s Word, we need to flood the world with that kind of love, especially now. What would it look like for us to write love letters to God in return and to the world on God’s behalf? How can we each do small things every day that communicate with our neighbors, strangers, and enemies that they are loved? What might it look like to post on social medias of choice pictures and messages about God’s love, human kindness, from us to them? What might happen if we prayed daily for a fresh outpouring of God’s love that flows through EFUMC into the Valley? What if, for the month of February, each night, we wrote a letter to God about how much we love God and ask how God wants us to love others? Would you be willing to try?
“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:34-35
Love Always,
Pastor Michelle
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