February! Spring is right around the corner, or wait, is it? We just received our first snowfall of the season. We surely needed the moisture, no matter how little it was. All of the pastures, trees, bushes, cattle, flower beds, and we humans needed that moisture. Thank you, Lord.
February is also known as the lovers’ month. Valentine’s Day, when we show those we love just how much we love them. My question is, why don’t we show the people that we love just how special they are to us every day? Spouses, how much attention did we show to them when we first got married? We let them know how much we loved them with special first‑morning hugs, we cooked their favorite meals, and shared quiet time with them. We made sure they knew just how much we loved them. How special they were to us.
Our children, our grandchildren—we give them all of our attention when they come around so they know how much they are loved and how special they are to us. When they get to be adults, do we still worry about them? Call them and just tell them we love them? Do we make them feel as special as when they were little and we knew that they needed us?
Why do relationships sometimes change? Our relationship with God changes over time, also. There are peaks and valleys in our relationship with our heavenly Father just like with our human counterparts. There are times in our relationship with God, just like the Psalms, when we praise, we lament, and we cry out for understanding. We don’t always understand His will and we want to know why this or that happened. We probably won’t get an answer, but, like all relationships, we have to trust that He has our best in mind.
We trust in our spouse when they make a decision that will affect our lives that they made the right decision for us. So we too need to trust in God for our safekeeping. After all, He is our creator, is He not? He did not create us to suffer and be alone. He created us out of love and He only wants the best for us and our families. So we pray, we read our Bibles so that our relationship may grow with Him.
God does not only love us in this month of February; He loves us year‑round. Lent is just around the corner. I hope you can join us February 18th at 6 p.m. for Ash Wednesday services, which will be held jointly with the Methodist Church. Following that will be Lent services on Wednesday at 6 p.m. We will be doing the Holden Evening Prayer service throughout the season of Lent.
God’s blessings to you all.
+ Pastor Sue Ellen