14,15 Feb -- Love

Happy Valentine's day!

I hope you have a "lovely" day. In the sense that it's full of love and you know you are loved. Though not necessarily "Valentine love". Hopefully love that is more substantial and longer lasting. The kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13.

I've spoken about that love a couple of times in the last few days. On Saturday, it was at the marriage of Adam (my son) and Janine. They chose 1 Cor 13 to be read and spoken on, as many marrying couples do. A great ideal to aim for in a marriage. The second occasion was this morning (seeing it's Valentine's day). A very different occasion -- the morning service at our nursing home and aged care hostel. Yet 1 Cor 13 was still very appropriate. In fact, it's not about marriage, though it has obvious application to that relationship. It's about relating to all with that kind of love.

But I should move on to our "Thru in 2" readings for today.
The readings for Wed 14 and Thur 15 Feb are:
Gen 3:1-4:26 Ps 2:1-6 Prov 1:5,6 Mt 2:1-23.

What a beautiful way for yesterday's OT reading to end. "Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame." What a contrast with Gen 3:7 -- "Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves." What a shame! The idyllic man-woman relationship in Gen 1&2 is shattered by guilt, enticement, blaming, doubt and lies.

Still, "Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived" (4:1) Quite a euphemism! It had never happened before, but it happens quite a bit in Gen 4 (and subsequently). Note the contrast with what we saw in Mt 2:25 -- Joseph married Mary "but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son". That had never happened before! Nor since. Notice too the very careful wording of Mt 1:16 -- "and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus".

In love, John