Here for today, for a time, and then eternity

Love and Death.  This week we celebrate Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day on the same day.  This conjunction of these two days occurs 3 times this century.  In 2018 we celebrated the two days together, this year we do the same thing, it will happen one more time in 2029 and then not again until the 22nd Century.

I have thought about the weird juxtaposition of love and death a lot this week as I have prepared to celebrate both the reality of my mortality and the love I have for others.  These thoughts have driven me to consider what I can do to demonstrate love to others with the time I have left.  Is that not what we have been called to do as followers of Christ? Love our neighbors as ourselves?

Consider Romans 5:8-9

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!

God’s love has been demonstrated to us, in Christ’s death.  His love is demonstrated in His life by teaching us about God and true relationship with Him.  His love is demonstrated in conquering the law of sin and death, by rising from the dead and becoming the Lord of the living and the dead.

On this Valentine’s Day we get to celebrate both the Love of God for mortal man, and the love we have for one another.  It is the true demonstration of God’s love for us and our love for Him in recognizing our mortality and need for a Savior.  We demonstrate our love for God in heart, soul, mind and strength, as well as our love for our neighbors.

This is the life of mortal man.  Here for today, for a time, and then eternity.  1 Peter 1:24-25, 

24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

Let us celebrate both our mortality this year and the joy of our love.  God has given us a glimpse of the beauty of His love here on earth, but we will see it even more clearly upon our death and eternity with Him.  So, this Ash Wednesday exercise your ability to love and this Valentine’s remember the temporal nature of your life and relationships.