Love is Bigger!

I Corinthians 13:13 But now abide faith, hope love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.  


Valentine's Day and love is in the air. Sweethearts shop for diamonds, marriages are officiated, boys steal a kiss, girls blush, moms buy the coolest Valentine's for the classroom and kids learn to draw hearts and eat candy with silly words stamped on them. Husbands spend their whole paycheck on a dozen red roses and a box of Sees...well, maybe not. (A nice card and your good cooking is sufficient). 

What is your action, your visible sign, your gift of love to show those special in your heart your affection?  

The leadership students at my high school where I work spent several days writing each classmate's name on a sticky note, color-coded to their grade, and placing it on a several signs that spelled out LOVE. Labor-intensive and creative, each were placed around significant viewing areas  of campus, encompassing the student body in a message of hope. You Matter! You are Loved! Love is bigger than a bully, bigger than failure. Love creates community. 

Mrs. Weiss and her students 

A personal sign of love gave me a hug today. My teacher shared with me a moment she had with one of our special students while returning from an off campus outing yesterday.  I walked ahead of her with another group while student "K" walked beside her. He noticed a butterfly decal on a car. He said to her, "That is for Miss Coleene... that car and the butterfly is for Coleene!" 

When she told me that today, adding "that some think our kids don't get stuff, but, Oh, how they do," I had to sigh and feel the emotion, that a butterfly-love moment reaches beyond boundaries and limitations one might consider, but  transcends and touches every human mind. He knew and felt my heart when I told him a tiny version of a butterfly story, how they come to remind me of a special one in heaven. He remembered the love. Love is bigger than obstacles we can't control or disabilities that challenge us. 

Love is powerful, more powerful than any negative emotion, especially if we feed it and live it and seek to make it grander. 

This morning, I viewed a wonderful story of love and courage combined. Please click on the video below and watch the story of an example of love for mankind exhibited by Mr. Andre Mary. This story should touch your heart with hope. 

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/79-Year-Old-Man-Rescues-Girl-Freeway-Overpass-368582691.html

The Lord is Love, for God so Loved, He gave his only Son. Think about the Cross and imagine, every human that ever lived having a sticky-note with their name on it, stuck to its rugged exterior, Christ's blood trickling down, runnng through every name.  It creates a big  picture viewed from eternity, one that spells love and grace. Find your name, see it and believe He knows you and redeems you. Allow that love to fill you with worth. Love can silence the "bullies" in your life and can transform them as well. Love is patient and kind, and God's Love is perfect and good. 

Love remembers and has hope that inspires others. Love is a story we can all tell in our own way. Love never fails. 

Love bears all things. Even at 79, love climbs on a freeway overpass and believes, triumphs and saves. Love is enduring and selfless. 

Earlier this week,  the10th of February marked the one-year anniversary of my father-in-law's passing. It rained in the afternoon after his memorial service and God gave us a double rainbow on the drive home. Wednesday afternoon, I glanced to the sky and a  "rainbow" of colors reflected in a scattering of light clouds on a rainless day. Later that evening, I ran an errand to the grocery store. In the sky, a group of birds flew in formation, dipping and bending in a circular motion, maybe even a heart. Lord, you are a good God and I thank you for the reminder that Your Love is powerful and transcending, personal and bigger than all our sorrow, our lacking, our confusion, our mistakes, our negativity, our doubt. Your Love is powerful and recharges perserverance, insightful and amazing. Thank you Lord. 

Father, I am grateful and blessed  for Your Love that gives life-saving hope. Help us Lord to love like You do in all circumstances, in our speech, in our actions, in our posts and tweets. Thank you that my name is on a sticky-note on the Cross of Your salvation and that I am remembered. Thank you Lord for showing us Love in rainbows and butterflies, in Your marvelous creation and in Your people. I know I am loved by Greatest Love and that I can forever trust in that same Love for my today and all my tomorrows. Amen

Happy Valentine's Day!  

K.I.S.S.

"But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13:13 

Love seems complicated for some.  The words don't come easy, or they come way too easy and the proverbial "cart before the horse" moves down a rocky, unpaved path. God gifted us with a passionate soul, one in which longs for love to fuel it as well as a companion to share the journey with, hopefuly "'till death do us part." It may seem like a puzzle,  pieces seem to be missing or just not fitting, or like a word-search that is backwards, forwards, side-ways...or in texting!

There is an acronym I like for Valentine's Day!

K. I. S. S.   

Keep It Simple Stupid, Silly!  (Let's be Nice, it is Valentine's Day)

A year after our son died, before blogging and Facebook, I wrote "newsletters." Maybe you received a few of them.

I shared a story in the Feb. 2008 issue and I'm sharing it again today. I received a Valentine from God,  through a gift of a hand written note from my son Tim to his brother, Corey. Written at a younger time in his short life; I found it while looking for those old school-made Valentines. Searching through a bin of "saved" works of school writing and art projects, passing up all the construction paper and packets, I located a thick notebook paper folded about 6 times with light blue felt pen writing on the inside. I set aside everything else. Opening it, the words, all written neatly in capital letters spoke of a love between my son Tim and his brother, my son Corey.

(Unedited)...Corey You Are Fun To Play With Because You Are
My Only Brother. You Will Always Be A Good Brother
To Me Even When We Fight, Like You Care Alot
About Me Like When You Did'nt Want Me To Go In The
Sewers You Were Praying. That Shows That You Have Fellings
For Me. Love Your Faviorte (Only Brothr) Tim

(Just in case you are questioning my parenting..."the sewers?" --the catch basin for rain runoff a few blocks over where the kids liked to "explore." Boys will be boys)...


A Revelation

A Light Given.

A Tangible Gift, Expressed.

Received.

Simple,

Cherished.

                                                                                                 ~~~

"Ms. C"
The dashes around the picture?
He told me he wanted it to look
"sewn" on. 

My student busied himself today with a Valentine drawing he then presented to me;  from a simple mind but a heart that beats just like mine, capable of giving and receiving love, just like mine.

                                         ~~~

We long for relationship, passion, purpose. Love.  God made it simple. We are the ones who complicate things. His desire for us is, yes, to have faith, to receive hope. But even in those days when faith seems impossible and hope crumbles like so many candy hearts with empty words, His love never fails. God wrote in blood His feelings for us on the palms of His hands, set inside a tomb only to be opened, unfolded and treasured in our hearts when Love conquered death!  Receive His Love note, His Valentine. Cherish it. Serve Him, Serve one another. In that obedience, the hope and faith grows within us.  Let Love Abound. This world needs it.

Lord, You are the Standard, the Template, the Example of true and pure--Perfect Love. Man taints it, discards it, abuses it, kills over it. Your love REDEEMS all of that. Love is the most powerful of emotions. Teach us Lord to love uncondtionally, to love selflessly, to love as You so loved. May we glorify You in our love. We thank you for all the relationships of love You have given us. Thank you for our husbands, our wives, our children, friends and even our pets. Fill us with compassion for others and enlarge our hearts to receive more of Your Unfailing Love. Amen.