Guest Post - Mini Speaks of Love

This week we received some great news.  The newspaper our sweet Mini writes for is expanding into 5 more cities!  Now Mini will be able to reach even more readers with her column and is considering starting her own blog to allow her to have more personal contact with her readers.  In the meantime, I will continue to help her spread her positive message by featuring her columns on my blog (mama's prerogative you know!).  This week's message is all about love so it is perfect for Valentine's Day.  Enjoy.

 

Words of Hope

 

It’s the season of love, everyone! It’s that time meant for us all to pour out our hearts to that special someone and to “spread the love”, so to speak. All that fills the boutiques, commercials, and drug stores are chocolate hearts and singing cards. People everywhere are urged to cuddle up to their loved ones and utter those famous three words. But why are we only urged to do this with people? Why aren’t we ever urged to think about a greater love- the greatest love, to be exact- on this lovey-dovey day? The biggest valentine of all came from our loving Father, packaged in the shape of a man.

          One thing we all tend push to the backs of our minds is how great the Father’s love is. Sure, we hear about how he loves us and I guess we know it, but we completely take what that means for granted. In the Old Testament, God showed his love through major blessings and through leading poor, destitute people into great kingdoms, all with His mighty hand. But then there came a point where our sin far out-weighed the good and Satan toyed with our hearts, leaving a gap between us and our God. So what happened? God entered Earth in the flesh to take on our sins. Romans 5:8 says “But God showed his love for us in that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. “We know this story already, Hope, you tell us all the time”, some may be thinking. But that’s not all. Not only are we saved and have a place with God in heaven and gain this whole, incredible new life on Earth, but God also gave us the promise that this will NEVER be taken away from us. What love! Romans 8: 37-39 says “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. I find it very hard to find words more powerful than those words spoken to us in that verse. God loves us enough to be patient with us in the times when we don’t deserve it. He loves us enough to not only give us a new life and make us into a new creation, but waits until we are ready to accept it from Him. He loves us enough to send his son to die the worse death, worse than any death that has EVER been died, so that we have a place in Heaven. And He loves us enough to promise us that no force on Heaven or Earth will EVER separate us from Him. How amazing is that? This is a love so great that it will never be able to be mimicked on Earth. We will never love someone as much as God loves us. That is a fact. So on this holiday, I urge you to sit down with the word of God, and let the pages talk for him. The Holy Bible is the best love story, and I pray that our lives are an echo of the great love our amazing, wonderful Father has for us. God bless.