Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Ash Wednesday! I will share this evening about the combination of these two celebrations. For our devotion, I want to share the Greek words used in the New Testament for love. You have heard me share about Agape, the love used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 and by Jesus in Matthew 5 and 22 when he talks about our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. But the bible uses other words like storge to refer to the love we have with family members or the word phileo, from which the word Philadelphia is taken that identifies “brotherly love.” The last word, eros, is the romantic love celebrated on Valentine’s Day. All these expressions of love are essential and part of the gifts God allows human beings to experience. As we celebrate the church holiday of Ash Wednesday and the civil holiday of Valentine’s Day, let’s be reminded that there are many facets of love, like the body of Christ. Still, Christ joins all of our experiences of love under the banner of Agape, which rules how we use the other forms of love to bring Christ, crucified, resurrected, and ascended into every situation.
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