Lasting Love
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)
In the month of February we usually think of love and Valentine’s Day. As we all know human love sometimes fails. In 1908, when he was 26 years old, the Hungarian musician Bela Bartok began to compose a violin concerto for his lady friend, a violinist. But by the time he had finished it, he beloved had married somebody else. She accepted the concerto as a gift but laid it away and never looked at it. It was not found until after his death in 1956.
Divine love is not like human love. God’s love is not subject to changes – or whims, unstable emotions, or a change of heart. God declares through Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” And through Isaiah, “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” (Isaiah 54:10)
The apostle John follows through on these declarations of God’s love saying, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) What gives God’s love such vitality is the permanence of it. What St. John wrote of God’s love nearly 2000 years ago is still true. We can rely on it.
After the example of God’s love, we too remain steadfast in our love to God and one another – that should be our concern. Love that changes with the wind is worthless. Abiding love is precious. Gifts of love – whether Bartok’s violin concerto or any other expression of love – are to be appreciated and put to good use. That is what God wants. He desires that we pass on His love, and that we can do only if we cling to it ourselves.
Adapted from With Jesus Every Day © 1997 Concordia Publishing House
Thank-you gracious God for your lasting love shown to us in Jesus Christ. Please strengthen my love for you and the people around me. Amen.
Your Pastor
Rev. Richard Salcido
