My last Valentine’s Day as a single lady was unique; circumstances surrounding the engagement to my fiancé have allowed me to spend a few extra months at home with my parents. I think of these months as gifts because of all that God has done in them to use us to be teachers and comforters and companions to one another- gifts that a lot of people don’t get to have as adults with their parents.
The mighty snow storm this week didn’t allow me to see my fiancé
on Valentine’s Day (which is okay because we get to do life together every
single day!) so my parents and I decided to hit up the YMCA for an endorphin
boost. The workout was refreshing and left us each ravenous, so we decided to
trek on up to the nearby Subway and then stop by Family Video for a relaxing
night of rest.
Stricken with the decision to choose between our regular
subs and the new flipizzas (flat bread pizzas- yes, they are delicious), Mom
and I stood in line contemplating our order. When we finally reached the
register, it was Dad’s turn to make the tough decision. Trying to take her mind
off of the growling beast in her stomach and to wait patiently, Mom dug into
her purse for her phone to distract her. It wasn’t there. When you’re a mother
of three and a MiMi of three, it’s pretty important to have your phone at all
times in case of emergencies or adorable videos of babies that you couldn’t
wait another second to see, so thinking nothing of it, she headed outside to
search the vehicle.
In a few moments, my Dad came charging up to me with
urgency-stricken eyes, “Where is your mother?!” Confused, I tried to search his
face, “She went to the car to look for her phone.” Leaving his flipizza order
and the boy waiting on him, he charged to the door to find her.
Why is he so tense?
And then I realized… our little homey town has not been so
homey lately, with several robberies and even murders, which leaves us a bit uneasy
about being out and about at night.
But what could he
really do if a gang attacked my Mom? Is he being overly protective and not
trusting God to take care of her?
“Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…” –Ephesians
5:25
My Dad was obeying God, willing to lay down his life for his
bride. Even if there was no chance that he would overcome a gang of dangerous
men, I know without a shadow of a doubt that my Dad would still lay his life
down in an effort to protect my Mom.
Not much about the night was “romantic,” but I caught a
glimpse of the kind of passionate Christ-like love that I pray my marriage is
saturated with… a covenantal, selfless kind of love that points to the cross of
Christ, a love transcendent of days and moments and humanity. This love is
nothing if not passionate, and not because of the heat-of-the-moment or because
it felt good. There was no heated risk in the blood-stained cross of Christ- He
knew exactly what He was getting with us… not the beautiful, perfectly shaped
runway model or the eloquently-speaking charmer, but simply you and I… at our
worst. He saw what we would look like in our 80’s and the major flaws in our
character and the nastiest pieces of our selves, but God loved us because we
were His children.
He made a covenant with Himself at Creation to love us at
all times and at any cost, already knowing what that cost would entail. Out of
obedience to The Father, Jesus bore that cross, counting His beautiful and
perfect and selfless life as nothing
because He knew that eternal Life was His. And ours.
That is Love.
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