In February of 2020, one of the last normal things we did at Hosanna was to host our Valentine’s Dinner. It’s a fun event hosted by the high school youth group.
The students all decorate our fellowship hall to look like an Italian restaurant. The students are then the waiting staff complete with maître de, their parents, and others becoming the kitchen staff. People then come on dates or in groups, and with a little Dean Martin music in the background and the smell of garlic in the air, a lot of roses and chocolates are enjoyed and a lot of love is shared. Everyone has a ball at the Valentine’s Dinner.
This year is different. We will not be hosting a dinner, no gathering, no Dean Martin, no garlic smell in the air. We will find some new and different ways to celebrate the gift of love within marriages, in families, and across the congregation. We will find some different ways to say I love you.
God has been saying I love you in many ways all along. He first said He loved you by creating you, giving you the breath of life, and making you a part of the human family. He continues to love you by providing for your needs. He doesn’t guarantee earthly wealth. But He provides us with skills, abilities and opportunities for gainful employment and other means of support. He provides people with whom we may share our time and attention. He gives us opportunities to share wisdom, to teach or mentor others. He gives us great purposes for our lives.
Most of all, God said I love you when He sent His Son into this world to bear our sins and to be our Savior. John 3:16, the Gospel in a Nutshell, says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life.”
That Son is the heaven-sent Savior, Jesus. He lived the perfect life we could not live. And with no sins of His own to atone for, He gave Himself in sacrifice instead for your sins and mine. He redeemed and restored us to God’s own family. God longed to welcome us back into His family because, well, He loves us.
And if you want to experience the love of God and His family, then join us at Hosanna Lutheran Church, 9601 E. Brown Road, Mesa, Ariz. Also, visit our website at hosanna-lcms.com.