The Month of Love
February 2009
January
is over, and no, I did not finish reading Leviticus yet (see former
entry for clarification). Too bad I only have 28 days to do so this
month.
I am very thankful for life, for what God has done for
all of us, and for the days He has made. But I am more than ready to
thaw out from this brutal winter and I am fairly certain that this
frigid season of imprisonment was one of the curses following the Fall
of mankind. Perhaps that passage is sandwiched somewhere between pain
in childbirth and working by the sweat of your brow. I’ll have to check
into it a little further…
If I am not careful, I let my heart
and attitude wax rather frosty this time of year as well. I sometimes
feel gloomy because it’s dark at 6:00 and I brace myself with a grimace
every time a door opens to invite an icy blast into my warm space. I
fight surges of annoyance that well up in me when my gas tank is frozen
shut and I have no gloves and the man inside BP makes me pay for a cup
of hot water to open it. I get weary of salty film all over my pants
from getting into and out of the car, being late because I have to
scrape my windshield, and finding my lip gloss frozen solid in my car
or exploded the next day. And right smack dab in the middle of this
delightful winter wonderland, when spring is so close and yet so far
away, I experience one final, special treat…a day full of chubby, naked
cherubs shooting people full of love, obnoxiously cheery red-and-pink
sentiments littered about, and a surfeit of lethargy-inducing,
sugar-laden treats. In the past, when I watched couples kiss and
canoodle, I used to have to try really, really hard to have a great
attitude about having no one to be my Valentine. I have been
disappointed by what seemed to me a pathetically Pollyanna-like
suggestion that Jesus was my Valentine. But this year I get it, and I
don’t even mind that I have a Love who won’t be sending me a Hallmark
card and a box of chocolates.
Don’t get me wrong…Marriage is a
beautiful thing and of course I will delight on the day when I become
Mrs. (Insert name here). But I also know that matrimony isn’t a dreamy
state of sweet nothings, sugary kisses, and romantic excursions. I have
enough common sense to see the potential pitfalls and weaknesses of
human romance. And while it is still something we all desire at some
point, I know beyond the shadow of doubt that any love any man could
ever give me would not be enough to change the course of my life the
way the love of God did. Truckloads of Valentines, candy and jewelry
could not have taken the fearful, bitter Jennifer that used to pray
that God would just let her die and softened her into a woman who is so
thankful to be alive.
So this February 14th, when I say I am
hopelessly in love, I mean it. And my Valentine’s Card will take me all
my life to read and understand…all 1,189 chapters of it!
Fittingly
enough for this month, I will share with you one of my favorite hymns
of all time. The Love of God was written in 1917 by Frederick Lehman.
The lyr¬ics are based on the Jew¬ish poem Had¬da¬mut, writ¬ten in
Ara¬ma¬ic in 1050 by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai. It has been trans¬lat¬ed
in¬to at least 18 lang¬uages. Perhaps the wording is a bit antiquated
for your taste, but I promise if you read it through you will see the
beauty and overwhelming power of His love.
~
The Love Of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Refrain
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Refrain
By Jennifer Yakopin
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