Yesterday, in honor of the martyrdom of St. Valentine, I hosted a dinner party with a few of my girl friends. It was a good time of delicious food and engaging conversation. While Valentine’s Day can be S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day), I wanted to celebrate the holiday in the truest fashion with having a feast day celebrating St. Valentine, as was the origins of the holiday on the liturgical calendar. While romantic love is often emphasized on Valentine’s Day, I wanted to celebrate love in all its forms, most especially in the form of friendships and community. To be honest, this day could have been a day to dwell on the fact that I am single, and in a culture which celebrates and idolizes romantic love so much, this fact can stare at me quite squarely in the face. However, this year, I decided to have a gathering of some of my dear friends, to be able to remember and be grateful for the relationships that I do have in my life.
While some of these friends had known each other before, some hadn’t seen each other in years, and some just met for the first time that night. Since I was the mutual connection, they shared stories (a few embarrassing ones) of different ways they knew me which was fun (although I did get slightly flushed in the face at a few of them). It’s a mind-blowing experience seeing my different worlds collide. As we ate dinner and shared stories of our different experiences – of schools, careers, relationships, travels, and hobbies, I listened to each woman tell her story and admired each one for the gifts and abilities that each one had, and for the ways they’ve all contributed to my life. It is such a gift to be able to live in a community with people who know and love me, and I was reminded of that reality once again.
After my guests had gone home, I started reading 1 John 3-4, and was reminded of the ways that God loved us and how we love because He first loved us, and that we are called to love each other.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him (3:1).
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God (4:7).
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us (4:18-19).
I like seeing the progression as first understanding how we are children of God in 3:1, then seeing how we are to love one another in 4:7, and then how there is no fear in love and how we love because he first loved us in 4:18-19. The love we have for each other flows out of the love that God has already shown us.
And again, I was grateful in being able to experience this love among this community in a tangible way, and to be able to experience God’s love through these friendships. While we feasted on angel hair pasta and chocolate chip pizookies and my stomach felt satisfied, my soul also feasted on the connection I had with these ladies in experiencing love in friendship and fellowship, leaving me with a feeling of satisfaction and contentment.
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