WATCHWORD:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
Meditation:
Making Love
When I was 14 or 15, growing up in my neighborhood, there are three or four of us that hung out, played games, hung out at the park and talked about all manner of stuff, as kids do. I was the youngest and I learned a lot from the older ones, about basketball, how to high jump and I learned about making love, at least as interpreted by mid-adolescent boys without information. The leader of our gang was probably a year or two older than I and, from his great store of wisdom, he told us that the word “sex” was a bad word but that “making love” was a way of saying the same thing, without saying it.
I didn’t like that then and I don’t like it now. What I had been taught was that the word love and the idea of love was on a high pedestal, a sacred place, because it was God-given. Love, as we experience it, comes to us as a grace, a gift from our Lord, unmerited, unearned, unsullied by what we make of it. I had a hard time connecting that word, which I hold in highest regard, with this other euphemism of intimacy. It just didn’t fit.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned or perhaps I’m stuck in a time warp, but I associate the phrase “making love” with a refreshening of the quality of a relationship between two people. Think of it this way, with all the electronics around, including phones and cars, you have to recharge the battery in order to refresh the purpose of the device. I view “making love” with your special person precisely this way. We don’t create the affection for that person, it is God-given. Our role is to refresh that relationship, in enumerable small and large ways.
Sometimes lyrics of a song tell a story better. In 1954 Kitty Kallan wrote and recorded Little Things Mean a Lot. The lyrics tell a beautiful and practical story of how love is enhanced and refreshed (made) in every day little things we do. Overlook the gender specific, stay with the meaning of the song.
Blow me a kiss from across the room
Say I look nice when I’m not
Touch my hair as you pass my chair
Little things mean a lot
Give me your arm as we cross the street
Call me at six on the dot
A line a day when you’re far away
Little things mean a lot
Give me your hand when I’ve lost the way
Give me your shoulder to cry on
Whether the day is bright or gray
give me your heart to rely on
Send me the warmth of a secret smile
To show me you haven’t forgot
Now and forever, that always and ever
Little things mean a lot
I have a picture taken of my loved one and I at a restaurant. We are smiling at the camera and we are holding hands. My comment to her was that I loved the picture because the hand-holding was meaningful and spontaneous. Little things mean a lot. So Be It.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there!
Prayer on Valentine’s Day:
Dearest Heavenly Father, we wish to thank You for the precious gift of love You have given to the world. Thank You for blessing us every day with this love and the power and strength that we get from You every single day. Without Your love for us we can’t function … we can’t even breathe … because we need Your love to sustain us. It’s like food and medicine for our souls Lord.
Please continue to let us feel Your comforting love in our lives and Lord we give ourselves over to You to perfect in us this gift of love … that we may be able to express it and share it with others. Lord, we have not always been good at this … forgive us. Lord, some people are harder to love than others, but we want to be like Your Son Jesus, so please continue the work You are doing in our hearts so our hearts will be like Yours. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
