Valentines from Heaven

After listening to a wonderful, inspirational class this last Thursday given by David A. Christensen, he concluded with the question, "Have you felt the love of God today?"  He asked the question as though it were completely normal to feel the love of God every day. To me the question was profound and left me wondering, "Can I feel the love of God every day in my life? Have I felt it today?"

Certainly there have been many times when I have experienced God's tender mercies, His forgiveness, the sweet assurance that He is there, but I know I had never thought about experiencing that love daily.  

I love the scripture in Romans 8:38-39 where Paul tells us "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God..."

Why then if His love is always there, do some of us not feel His love daily?  One answer might be that perhaps we fail to recognize His love in the world around us.  I remember sitting in church one Sunday with my youngest daughter, Savannah.  She couldn't have been more than five or six years old at the time, but she noticed that the light above her was shining directly on her.  She piped up and said, "The light is shining on me, that means that I am loved!"  In that moment because of a simple beam of light, she recognized God's love.

C.S. Lewis has said, "Something of God flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself."

I have often felt God's love in the warmth of the sun on my face, in the scent of a sweet flower, in the tenderness of a child cuddled on my lap, in the taste of a sweet, tangy orange, or in the grandeur of the view from a mountain height.  You can feel God's love in all of His creations.  Sometimes we forget to recognize and be thankful for God's sweet, simple gifts of love.

Another reason we might not feel God's love daily is because we forget to check-in. Thanks to the wonderful invention of text messaging, my children are constantly checking in with me, especially when things aren't going the way they might like them to be.  I'm the first to hear when they don't feel good, or they didn't do so well on a test, or that someone didn't treat them so well that day.  Often when they message me, they are just looking for the reassurance that someone is there who cares; who can share in their disappointment and sorrow and give them a few words of comfort and love.

God can do the same for us if we make him a daily part of our lives.  I believe He wants to! We should talk to him countless times a day.  Do we tell Him our troubles and take time to receive His comfort? We know He just loves to listen to us.  Doesn't He ask us to pray always?  Doesn't He ask us to "Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit and you shall have peace in me."  Do we take the time to walk with Him in His light each day?  If not, perhaps when we find ourselves feeling miserable, it is because we aren't taking the time to feel His abundant love.

C.S. Lewis tells us, "God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing."

If we cannot feel happiness and peace without God, isn't it true, then, that every happiness we feel is a manifestation of God's love for us?  I think that every happiness must be, especially after going through the last few days trying to experience God's love daily.  And I have found by being just a little more focused on His love, that it is all around me like a shower of beautiful "Valentines from Heaven."  

I know that all of you can have this same experience.  Take the time to receive your own "Valentines from Heaven" this Valentine's Week. God is just waiting to bless you with His abundant love!