“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
It is February! What genius invented Valentine's Day and put it smack in the middle of February? Just when winter's cold drab existence makes me feel like I'm stuck in Narnia, ("always winter, yet never Christmas") along comes a little joy wrapped up in small cinnamon hearts and a few pretty flowers.
It's been so busy around here this month! My husband was on vacation at the beginning of the month, then last week I kept busy making candy heart suckers and a Valentine box for my oldest boy's classroom. I think Valentine's Day is what you make of it. If you think it's just a holiday created by the commercial powers that be, then there is very little that will convince you otherwise. But be that as it may, sometimes if we look at it with fresh eyes and see the traditions we often overlook, I think we'd all be pleasantly surprised. Why, what will scientists say someday in the future about these old shoe boxes carefully disguised and designed- that elementary school children once used to put prefabricated valentine cards into? I'm sure someday any that survive will end up on Antiques Roadshow in the folk art category. Perhaps someday someone will bid a huge amount of money for one box of 32 Spongebob Squarepants Valentines, new in the box, of course, and rumored to have been bought at the "Walmart".
So this is coming somewhat late, as I had wanted to start much earlier this month. I included a quote from C.S. Lewis because I guess I feel like sometimes I keep my love quiet in a tiny perfect box. I give it to my family, of course, but is that all love was designed for? Did Jesus only love those that loved him?
Sometimes I notice people like to post little sayings on facebook that go something like this: "I have learned in my life that those that truly love me are worth my time, and everybody else means nothing", in so many words, one way or another, so on and so forth. What? Really? Have you bothered to stop and look at what you've just posted?
What has happened to us? Have we really allowed our wounded feelings from the past to control us that much that now they tarnish our futures in such a way? Is life only to be lived in a tiny safe box surrounded only by those that approve of how we see things? This is Un-American, and when I see it posted by Christians, entirely disheartening.
So, long story short, (well, maybe) I've decided to live my life unsafe- to be vulnerable. To start, I've decided to look for ways to love and learn about others that maybe I normally would not have thought twice about. Maybe they are outside my little world. Maybe they have different political or lifestyle views than I do. Jesus never said "I've learned in my life that my disciples are the only ones I can trust, and everybody else doesn't matter." No. Everybody else DOES matter. Everybody else is exactly who we are here to love.
