Hello ICC Family!
Valentine’s Day more and more seems to be a holiday that the whole world is beginning to celebrate. It was quite popular in Thailand the years that our family lived there. We came to have a holiday tradition for our whole family where we went to a popular ice cream establishment called Swensen’s and would splurge by having their chocolate fudge fondue. That was about the limit of our celebrations though. Some years I did buy Laurel flowers, but the cat would usually eat them and make a mess. Not very romantic at all!
It is always a question how much to talk about the holiday in church as there are some that have never found a spouse or even a romantic interest. Others have lost a spouse so the holiday can be difficult to get through. But in as much that Valentine’s Day is a holiday that celebrates love… it is a great opportunity to focus for a second on God’s incredible sacrificial love for us. We are going to be looking at that quite a bit in the next month as we get to 1st John chapters 4 and 5. In preparation for that I stumbled across a quote by A.W. Tozer. He said:
“All Christians have tried to explain God’s love, but none has ever done it very well. I can no more do justice to that awesome and wonder-filled theme than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. So, as I stretch my heart toward the high shining love of God someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.
As we consider God’s love, we are reaching for the stars. And I think it is a wonderful thing to contemplate. Because as we do this… we will be changed, and at the same time we will be pointing to Christ. Much more about this in Sunday’s sermon!
Until then blessings to you all. Do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have prayer requests, questions about the church, anything…! Until then, know that I’m praying for you! And my prayer this week will be from Ephesians 3:17-19:
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Pastor Aaron
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