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God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
- 1 John 4:16b

February is a month when hearts are everywhere and the theme of the season is love.  Of course, with Valentine’s day the focus is most often on romantic love.  Nevertheless, love in all its many and varied forms is a wonderful thing for us to focus on. At a time in society where hatred and division is being shouted loudly on all platforms, the message of love is exactly the anecdote that we need.

The letter of 1 John tells us that God IS love.  John goes on to write that when we love one another, when we live lives that act out of love towards one another, we are actually living IN God.  When we choose our words and actions based out of LOVE for our neighbor, for our enemy, for our family, or for those with whom we disagree… we are making visible in the world the God who lives within us. 

This love that we are called to live in, to dwell in, is not just some warm-fuzzy feeling that we have for the people who are closest to us.  Growing up my parents taught me that love is not a feeling, it is an action.  If someone says “I love you,” but actively harms you - they are not loving you.  If I dislike someone (because of their opinions, their personality, or even their actions), but continue to treat them as a child of God - disagreeing with them respectfully, refusing to dehumanize or degrade them - then I am showing love to that person, even though I might never say the words. 

Love is not an easy thing.  It takes work and it can be extremely difficult.  Love requires a giving of ourselves, a willingness to see the needs of others and to recognize in them a valuable child of God - someone as worthy of love as we are.  But, as all the poets and songwriters know, “Love makes the world go ‘round,” “All you need is love (Love is all you need)”… and in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Where there is love, there is life.”

As followers of Jesus, we are called to live lives that are grounded in love - to live in and live out of the divine love that surrounds us.  Having been given the amazing gift of God’s unconditional love, we are called to share that gift with the world.  This February I invite you to think about the words of 1 John when you see hearts in windows, when you receive a Valentine, or when you walk by the candy displays at the grocery store.  Let the pink and red explosion remind you of God’s presence in every act of love, no matter how small.