Love in a Box

Every year around Valentine’s Day I can expect a visitor on my doorstep bearing a gift. As far back as I can remember, the gift has been the same. The size has varied from time to time, but the shape and the contents have not. Neither has the heart from which it’s given. My dad shows up with this:

Love in a box



And the best word I can use to describe this annual display of affection is faithful.

I have been blessed with two great parents, but today I want to focus on my dad. I have heard before that we tend to view God through the lens of our fathers, so I’m thankful today that I have been blessed with a good one. And I’m thinking that his faithful yearly Valentine gift surely wouldn’t be as meaningful as it is if it weren’t for the love expressed in countless ways throughout the year. Just this week he plowed snow out of my loooong lane at least four times. Also this week he took my boys on a hike in the woods behind our house through the deep snow to look for animal tracks. He spent much of last summer fixing up an area on his farm for a picnic site for his family, including building a shelter with the works. There’s just not enough space to tell about all he’s done (nor am I even aware of everything), but you get the picture.

His constant love led me to thinking about Another’s. One who is Faithful and True. One who for Eternity has shown and promises to show constant devotion. Sometimes we tend to forget how He daily sustains us and gives us each moment. We’re good at remembering at Easter or during times of crisis. Yet if we look closely, we can see His lovingkindness shown each and every day. And that makes what He did even more meaningful . . . the one time He appeared on the doorstep of the world as a gift in a feed trough. The Original Love in a Box.

Love in a Box

I'll Owlways Love You

It’s just around the corner. That day of paper lace hearts, candy, and flowers. The little pink purse my husband bought for the Princess is waiting in a bag in a secret hiding spot, along with two definitely more boyish gifts for the guys in the house.

This made me realize that I'd better get crackin’, so I opened up my Family Fun Magazine to a super-cute, easy idea. The boys made these:

Then I told the boys that their writing assignment today was to write a love letter to Jesus. My younger son was pretty sure that he’d never written a love letter before and didn’t know where to begin, so that inspired me to find some verses in God’s love letter, some words that came directly from His mouth.

I discovered the original “Longer” song:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Found in Jeremiah 31.)

And I found the first “I’ll Be There.”

(Forget Jackson Five. God has the copyright on this one.):
“You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior . . . Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you . . . Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” (Read more in Isaiah 43.)

And one more oldie-but-goody.

The very first “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You”:
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken.” (God had this recorded in Isaiah 54.)

Take a minute and let your soul sigh over those. . . Isn’t He something?

I’d say those are pretty inspiring for some love words of our own back to our Father and Friend, as did my boys:

Now, I just need to work on a card for my hubby.

Maybe I’ll turn to some other love letters from history for a little inspiration:

…Do you know, when you have told me to think of you, I have been feeling ashamed of thinking of you so much, of thinking of only you--which is too much, perhaps. Shall I tell you? It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what you are to me--the fullness must be in proportion, you know, to the vacancy...and only I know what was behind--the long wilderness without the blossoming rose...and the capacity for happiness, like a black gaping hole, before this silver flooding. Is it wonderful that I should stand as in a dream, and disbelieve--not you--but my own fate?

Was ever any one taken suddenly from a lampless dungeon and placed upon the pinnacle of a mountain, without the head turning round and the heart turning faint, as mine do? And you love me more, you say? Shall I thank you or God? Both, indeed, and there is no possible return from me to either of you! I thank you as the unworthy may…and as we all thank God. How shall I ever prove what my heart is to you? How will you ever see it as I feel it?… (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

On second thought, maybe I’ll just go to Hallmark.

I'll Owlways Love You