Every year to start the season of Lent Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday. This day serves as a reminder of our need to reconcile and repent to God for all our sins. The priest or pastor will place ashes in the form of a cross on the person’s forehead while saying, “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return.”, reminding us of our mortality as human beings. This year, in 2024, Ash Wednesday happens to fall on another widely celebrated holiday, Valentine’s Day. I saw a post on social media that pointed out that the word “Lent” was right in the middle of the word “Valentine”. I know that God put this in front of me for a reason!

So let’s take a moment to talk about “love”. Love can have so many different meanings. We derive most of our meanings of love from the ancient Greeks. There are 8 different types of love according to the Greeks, but I am just going to touch briefly on a few of them here.

The most familiar form of love to most of us is Eros. This is a romantic or physical love focusing mainly on attraction and physical needs. Think of the little baby Cupid shooting an arrow through your heart! Another type of love that is fairly familiar is Philia. This is the love that we have between friends. Closely related to Philia is Storge which is the love of family and close friends. This type of love is most typically seen between parents and their children.

The final type of love I want to talk about, and the most important one in my opinion, is Agape. Agape is a universal love of humanity which is unconditional. This Agape love is the love that God has for us. As we focus in on these two events, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday, I find it quite appropriate that they fall on the same day. God’s unconditional love for us is more important than any type of human love we can experience. One of the most powerful verses in scripture states this,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Think about this for a minute. Those of you who are parents, can you imagine sacrificing your child, even if it meant that you could save the lives of others in the process? As a parent myself, I cannot even fathom doing anything like this, or even having to make that decision. God knows that we cannot make that decision. That is why He did it for us. He loves us, yes ALL of us, so much that he sacrificed His son Jesus so that we can be forgiven of all our sins and live with Him eternally in heaven. All we have to do is believe! I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a greater love than that.

As it says in Genesis, God created humankind in His image. He loves us so much, he wants us to live with Him eternally in heaven. God knew from the beginning that He would have to send His Son to save us. God loves us so much, and He wants to forgive us.

So what does all of this have to do with Valentine’s Day? 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” As Christians, we should follow God’s example of love. We should do our best to show love and kindness to all. And, the most important thing to remember is that God is love! So this Valentine’s Day as you celebrate with your flowers, chocolates and cards remember this: that the greatest gift of love you have received, and ever will receive, has come from God!

May God’s love be with you all this Valentine’s Day!

Written by Molly Wuertz