Love, Valentines and God by Sheila Johnson

 Do you celebrate Valentines Day? If you are married do you make a great deal of it or not, or similarly if you are engaged or in a relationship? If you are single do you just hope and pray it passes quickly, or instead use it as an occasion to celebrate God's love?

My first book, Alpha Male, was a romance centred around an Alpha Course. So although it follows a growing attraction between journalist, Craig Wilson, employed by his local paper to cover the event, and the young attractive churchgoing, Amy, it also follows the ingredients of an Alpha Course. As Craig discovers more about God and what it means to follow Him, the reader also discovers the same. Please see my website for further details

I post for the Good News newspaper on social media every week day. In February, of course, they are centring on love. But as one article explains, love can be painful. We can be rejected by the one we are attracted to, experiencing unrequited love. There are plenty of books and poems written on this subject. Unrequited love can result in low self-esteem. We can believe that we are unlovable. But this can never be the case with God. He loved us enough to die for us ( 1 John 3:16),  and you can't ask much more than that! 

I would like to conclude with one of my favourite poems written by George Herbert, a long time ago but still a great example of God's love. 

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.  
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in, 
Drew nearer to me sweetly questioning

If I lacked anything. 

'A guest', I answered, 'worthy to be here;'

Love said, 'You shall be he'

'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, 

I cannot look on Thee.'

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply.

'Who made the eyes but I?'

'Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.'

'And know you not,' says Love, 'Who bore the blame?'

'My dear, then I will serve.'

'You must sit down,' says Love, 'and taste My meat.'

So I did sit and eat. 

Sheila Johnson lives in Cheltenham and is a qualified journalist who has written for a number of publications both local and national. She has also written two books under her pen name Sheila Donald, Alpha Male and Waireka. Her website can be found at www.journojohnson.com