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By Freda Reynolds

February is the month we celebrate sweethearts. Valentines, candy, cards and flowers are advertised everywhere. It is a celebration of love! Young love is bursting out like spring flowers. Moms and Dad get into the act, purchasing bunnies, bears, candy, and treats. We want our friends and family to know how much we care.

As a follower of Christ, I believe love is deeper than that. 1 John 4:7 says,” Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God.” Verse 8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.”

Leo Tolstoy is credited with the statement, “Where love is, God is there.” We find that even in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam and Eve. He desired fellowship and friendship with His creation. And when they sinned and hid themselves, God looked to find them.

God loves us! We have the image of God stamped upon us. Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image.”

Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:18-19, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

We can not completely understand the love God has for us. We can only measure love by human standards, which is a very poor ruler to measure God’s love.

To most of us, we think of love as a fuzzy, heart-pounding, knees-weak state that comes from the physical reaction of attraction. However, that reaction and the attraction we have for someone is fleeting. It leaves us with an empty longing for more. I’m sure that most agree we long to get back that young love desire that we thought was the real thing.

Real love is God’s love. It’s deeper, higher, wider, and lasts longer. Real love is the commitment when the “zing’ is gone. It is unconditional, and love is without boundaries.

God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

For Valentine’s Day this year, consider that early memory verse you learned as a child. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Now that, my friends, is love. John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.

Happy Valentine’s Day!