Love Is As Love Does
I John 4:19 -- "We love, because He first loved us."
Tucking the sheets in around the bed I watched a dryer sheet fall from the folds and land on the floor. While picking it up my eye caught the shimmer of something under the bed. Reaching for it, a huge smile spread across my face because I recognized the fabric covered heart shaped box with the crystal on the bow - a valentine gift from my husband last year. I'm not really sure how it ended up under the bed but the thought of it reminded me of the gentle surprise in the brightly gift-wrapped box of Russel Stover.
It's been a while since any of us in the Dalton Gang truly celebrated Valentines Day. It was five years ago on February 14th that we made the slow march from our church to Jacksonville Memory Gardens where we buried Steven's Dad. Valentines Day just hasn't been the same since. It isn't that we made some sort of silent agreement that the day would pass without flowers, balloons, or chocolates - we just collectively didn't FEEL much like celebrating anything.
But last year Steven came home from work with the prettiest, biggest satin red heart shaped box of candy I'd ever seen in my life. I knew I was going to keep the box once the contents had been eaten. It was too pretty to throw away, true - but most of all the box became much more than a beautiful heart-felt gesture.
Letting the sunlight refract off the crystal in the folds of red satin I smiled and remembered with great fondness that I looked up in surprise when Steven handed it to me and said Happy Valentine's Day. My heart skipped a beat because not only did I get a wonderfully sweet sentiment from my husband, but I relished in the joy that he felt like celebrating the day for the first time in so long. It made my heart sing.
Putting the box up on the dresser I thought of something else: my husband loves me because his Dad taught him how to give and to receive love. In the very short eleven years during which I was granted the precious gift of knowing Bobby Dalton, I watched him love his wife, his children, his Creator, and his Savior. I watched him demonstrate love in a remarkable way. Because of that amazing gift of love - Steven loves. Steven is a wonderful husband, an amazing friend, and an incredible father. He learned those things because his Dad first loved him.
You and I love only because we were loved first. We would not know love had it not been given to us, shown to us, poured over us in the first place.
When next I look upon the calendar and see that Valentine's Day is just around the corner once again, I will celebrate the gift of Dad's legacy - I will celebrate the love that he instilled in his boys. I will celebrate that all love as we know it is a response to a precious and most amazing gift - the first love - God's love. For these things there is much reason to celebrate, indeed.
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