A Song for Ash Wednesday

Well, it is not often that we have two holidays falling on the same day.  But today is one of those occasions.  We have the sacred holiday of Ash Wednesday alongside the secular holiday of Valentine's day.

Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance...a day to remember that dust we are and to dust we shall return (Genesis 3: 19).

Valentine's day: a day to celebrate...love?

I'm not really sure what we celebrate on Valentine's day.  We do nothing here at home.  I like the Panamanian version, where we celebrate love and friendship, emphasis on friendship.  It takes the sting ... the pressure off the day.  I'm not in love with this holiday.  It just seems fake and forced to me.  It feels more like an obligation than a celebration...

I don't know...but today, when both of them fell on the same day... there was something different... something actually special about it.  It felt as if Valentine's Day finally made sense!

I feel like celebrating love today!  The kind of love that is worth having its own holiday.  The kind of love that brings salvation.  The kind of love that brings forgiveness.  The kind of love that makes beauty out of ashes.  The kind of love that Jesus expressed when He stretched His arms on the cross for us.

It is because of His perfect love that we can repent and be forgiven.  It is because of His unique kind of love that we can be the bride awaiting for her Bridegroom.  It is because of His amazing love that we are:  a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys, a lily among thorns... (Songs of Songs 2: 1-2).  It is because of His faithful love that we are His masterpiece...His poem...His song.

I'm glad we had these two holidays in one this year.  I can finally say: Happy Valentine's Day without being sarcastic...for the kind of love we celebrate today paid it all, cancelling our debt, so we can have life, and have it in abundance!

May the ashes remind us of the humility we need to receive the Love that brings us out of the dark and into His Light!