Actions speak louder than words…we’re all familiar with that saying.  I’m sure everyone can think back to a time in their life when someone’s actions spoke volumes about their love that words wouldn’t be able to describe.  We could all stop right now and make a list of those moments.  Some would be long, others shorter…but I can guarantee that as Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we would all have one in common ~ and He’s probably at the top too!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said this, “When one is truly in love, one not only says it, but shows it.”  When I think of this quote in light of the cross and why my Savior died for me, it’s hard to comprehend why the Creator of the world would go to such lengths to show me His love.  Think about it, all through Scripture we see the Lord proving His love to His people.  He doesn’t have to do anything for us!  Yet it says of Him in Romans 5:8 that, “God demonstrated His love to us that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I know that we have heard the message of Calvary a thousand times, we know it by heart, and can quote John 3:16 without even thinking.  So, let’s think about it differently…Has it ever crossed your mind that Jesus didn’t have to leave heaven?  He didn’t have to save us.  As God, He wasn’t required to do anything.  He could have given up on us a long time ago.  Just after 1,000 years of existence on this earth man ruined themselves (read in Genesis 6 what it says about man when Noah built the ark).  Again, from Genesis to Malachi is roughly 4,500 years, and there is another 400 years from Malachi to Matthew.  That’s almost 5,000 years…that’s a long time!  (And that’s not counting from the time of Christ until now!)  That’s a long time for the Heavenly Father to sit in heaven and watch men disobey Him time, after time, after time, after time.  That’s 5,000 years of patience, mercy, longsuffering, grace, compassion, generosity, forbearance, kindness, perseverance, (these last two are my favorite), persistence and unflappability.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s hard for me to go five minutes with just one of those characteristics, yet alone, ALL of them for 5,000 years!  Makes ya’ pretty glad that Lynn isn’t in charge of the universe, eh?!!!

That’s 5,000 years of LOVE, isn’t it?  And that love is still good for us today too.  No matter where you are going to be this Valentine’s Day, whether you’re going to be alone, with family, or with that special someone…know this, that the Father is still loving, patient and full of grace and mercy.  I love the bridge to the song that says, “It’s not a love that is built on emotion, it’s not a love that will crumble and fall.  It’s a real love built on solid devotion, saving my spirit from the ultimate fall.”

You know what I like about that one word – unflappability?  It means this, “able to maintain composure under all circumstances.”  Only God can do that!  He knew when He created this world what it’s end would be…and He created it anyway.  The Lord had a plan and He would go through with it…unwavering…even, even if it meant giving His only Son.  Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.”  How the Father loves us!

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10

Now that is an eternity of love…