Be My Valentine

If it didn’t seem so frivolous, I would say that God is my Valentine. The frivolousness of that idea reflects the trivial nature of love portrayed by Valentine’s Day. I am compelled to quote The Christians Journal of Contemporary Christian History, for Friday February 14, 2014.

To think that Valentine, or any other saint, approved of any two mortals “falling madly, hopelessly in love” and “living only for each other forever” would be quite wrong. In fact, no culture has ever approved of it until now, because it so easily overpowers both marriage and religion. And the disarray today of marriage and religion probably leaves St. Valentine shaking his head.

Until now, all human cultures—both Christian and pagan—saw marriage as a rational and calculated business to unite particular families and clans through allocation of property and the procreation of children of known parentage. Romance was a distraction. Marriage was a duty.

Of course it was always hoped that the couple would come to love each other. But . . . the idea that marriage should happen only if and after a couple “falls in love” was, until fairly recently, ridiculous.

Hey, that’s not to say I’m not a romantic. I fell in love at first sight sixty four years ago and I’m still married to the same girl. And that desperate sense of longing that love inspires provided an initial foundation for our marriage.

But In the mid fifties, love was for marriage and the nurture of subsequent children; not simply a self-satisfying recreation, but a God-ordained means of furthering and cultivating the human race.

Of greater significance, love and marriage is an extension of God’s nature, immersed in eternal love within the Trinity. So He fashioned the triune family: father, mother, and children, and this love between humans should reflect the love that God offers.

What is that love like? Even asking the question shows how far we have come from knowing or understanding it. Here is a testimony of a friend finding His love so unexpectedly.

I knew God as Creator and had absolutely no feeling of separation from Him, having been fed a diet of liberal theology. I knew since God had created me He would redeem me. The song “Holy, Holy, Holy,” meant nothing to me since I had no sense of sin in my own life.

[My friend] Marcella’s pastor proceeded to tell me that salvation was free, and I could be assured of eternal life through accepting Jesus as my Saviour. He showed me the Scripture in Ephesians 2:8: “for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

 

That was a new concept to me. . . . I listened while he explained the doctrine of salvation. When he asked me to accept God’s free gift through prayer, I did so.

Well, it wasn’t long before I was experiencing a new range of emotions. First, remorse for past incidents which in the natural I wouldn’t have imagined were sinful; then a peace and a joy, words which were meaningless to me until then. Finally, a love and compassion for others I wouldn’t have believed possible.

“Dead in trespasses and sins,” was an apt description of my previous life, and I hadn’t even known I was dead! When I read John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly,” I knew experientially what the apostle was talking about. How thankful I am that God showed me my need and I responded.

Can our love for our Valentine inspire him or her the same way?

 

Find God's direction in the Norford's Marriage Devotional, HappyTogether, Available in paperback or kindle from Amazon.

Idealism or Realism

I am always amazed at news reports of children who have pioneered a fund collection or humanitarian project, often with remarkable results. It is humiliating to see children doing what I would probably fail at.

Idealism is a feature of youth; realism a growing understanding gained later in life. Idealism sees “what should be done,” while realism perceives “what can be done.” But realism often degenerates into “what can’t be done.”

The 1851 Festival of Britain in London held a competition for the design of the main building. Many architects presented designs, but the winning project was a huge steel and glass building (later known as the Crystal Palace) designed by a gardener familiar with greenhouses.

He wasn’t inhibited by the standard building techniques of his day, and his design was the forerunner of many later steel and glass buildings.

Children and youths see all things through young, fresh new eyes, including methods and ideas not anticipated or available to their elders. Systems and processes adopted by an older and traditional generation don’t restrict them; they are more able to “think outside the box.”

When children succeed at some project, their idealism has been channelled into workable solutions. Rather than recount why a child’s idea cannot be done, enable them to think through their own ideas on how problems can be overcome.

We may be amazed at what their idealism can accomplish.

Children: A Lost Priority

Many of you have no doubt heard of the tenancy problems at the MacFarland building in Lethbridge. The problem is wider than reported in the local media, and involves two widely disparate tenancies invited to locate next to each other.

On one side is a children’s music program that runs into the evening hours and the other side of a thin wall is a sexually liberated straight and gay theatre, with rehearsals and public performances taking place—also in the evenings.

The landlord of this building must be either naive or desperate to juxtapose these two tenants, who are at extreme opposite ends of the sexual scale—young children and sexually explicit performers—where sounds from one side permeate the other.

Unfortunately, the theatre saw the problem as “homophobic,” and angrily responded in every media to a complaint from the children’s music program. By considering it as anti-gay, their response has sadly buried the basic problem.

The problem is not homosexuality, but a public adult program of sexuality—of any variety—inappropriately practiced adjacent to a program involving young children. Straight or gay, the theatre is free to rehearse and play its performances, but not within hearing proximity to minors.

One would have hoped that the theatre would have been more sensitive to the presence of the adjacent children than the perceived attack on themselves. The impression they leave is that tolerance for its openness to sexual practices should trump the needs of young children.

But, perhaps, as abortion continues to confirm that children are disposable, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Can We Find Peace?

Many of you may remember the Beatles refrain of the last century: “All we are asking, is give peace a chance,” repeated as long as one could sing it. It went along with peace marches in nations of the world to stop the carnage of the interminable national and international struggles.

The refrain has died out, but the wars continue despite efforts to bring combatants to the table for peace talks. While watching the many peace marches world wide—and even agreeing with their desire—I often wonder if those marching are at peace with their neighbours and family.

We can hardly berate the leaders of the world for failure to achieve peace if we are at loggerheads with legitimate authorities, adjacent neighbours or family members. So the urgent need is to be at peace with those around us. But how do we achieve that?

Simply put, if we don’t have peace with ourselves, we won’t find harmony with people around us. Those who antagonise us—perhaps we ourselves—have inner conflict; internal anger, dissatisfaction, turmoil or resentment frequently directed at others.

Where can we find that elusive peace for ourselves? The Bible teaches the only valid source of peace is outside of ourselves; we must have peace with God if we are to find peace within. Jesus has already offered us peace with God if we accept His sacrifice on the cross for our sin.

Complete and final peace on earth awaits the coming of the Prince of Peace. But we can trust God now with the inequities of life that cause conflict—even our own guilt. The knowledge that our status is settled for ever gives us an inner peace—the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, Philippians 4:7—that cannot be found anywhere else.