A Valentine’s Message

What is Love?

“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it”, quoted from Nicholas Sparks’ book “A Walk to Remember”. It is both a noun and a verb. Love is something that exists and can be shown in many ways. Every year people celebrate Valentine’s Day in the month of February. Around the world people send cards and flowers to people that they care for and love. In Japan, it is a practice for girls to give boys chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Every culture has their unique way of celebrating this special day. Since Valentine’s Day seems to remind people about love, have you stopped at some point and asked yourself what love means to you?

In class, we are learning about how Valentine’s Day started. It’s obviously a story of love and sacrifice. 

I asked my 4th grade students to define love without the use of a dictionary.

Here are some of their thoughts:

“Love is something that you like about a person”

-Geoffrey

“Love is God because God made love. Everyone has love!”

-Lala

“God loves Daya! Love is when you say I love you to your parents, give presents to your friends and say thank you to your teacher.”

-Dayanitha

“Love is a feeling you get when you like that person you love very much. If you love a person that person is probably very special to you.” -Caleb

People define love differently but the Bible speaks more of sacrificial and authentic love. It is a love that that saved people from the consequence of sin. It is a love that is worth knowing that will never fail us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. 

For a Christian, “The greatest symbol of love is not the heart but the cross. Why? The heart stops beating but the man on the cross never stops loving.”