"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
my soul can reach..." This oft-quoted line from the poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her husband in 1845 may find its way into a few traditional Valentine's Day cards and messages again this year. A husband or wife may even express it verbally to their spouse from time to time. What a romantic expression of love and devotion!
It's no wonder that God compares the love between a husband and wife with the love that He has for His Church. And, as we read in Scripture, how often was God distraught when His bride, the Church, was unfaithful to Him? Yet He never fell out of love for her!
A person does not need to be married to experience God's love. God Himself said it way before Elizabeth Barrett Browning came along. He inspired St. Paul to write it this way:
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3: 17-19)
God's love has no limits, no conditions, and no barriers. It is pure, open and honest. What comfort for us imperfect sinners! What a blessing to receive this love that is so deep, so wide, so long and high that He punished His own Son so that we could belong to Him forever. And then He came to live in our hearts so that we actually believe this humanly unbelievable reality!
May you all have a blessed Valentine's Day as you bask in God's love--every day!
