February is the month for expressing love. I am glad there is one day set aside on our calendar to let others know how much they mean to us; yet does expressing our love have to be a “one day” event? The quality of our relationships is certainly not defined by the events of a single day! Valentine’s Day should just be one of the many special days of the year that we focus on communicating Christ’s love to others.
So this year instead of expressing our love to our family and friends on just Valentine’s Day, lets commit to expressing our love on a more consistent basis. I recently read a touching story of one man’s daily expression of love:
Some of you probably remember the comedian Jack Kublesky. He was from Waukegan, Illinois and passed away years ago. His professional name was Jack Benny. When Jack was a young man, he was working in the same studio as a young lady he wanted to date. He thought she was beautiful, but he was too shy and embarrassed to ask her out. He couldn’t get up the courage or the nerve so he started sending a single, red rose to her desk with no note attached to the rose.
Every day she received the red rose. Finally one day, she asked the delivery man who was sending her the roses. He said a guy named Jack who worked in the same studio. She found out who he was. Finally they began talking and Jack asked her out for a date. She thought that after they started dating the roses would stop. But they didn’t. They kept coming…a single rose every day.
They were engaged and she thought the roses would stop. But they didn’t stop. They even kept coming after they were married. Every day a single rose would show up for Mrs. Benny.
After five years, and ten years, and decades later a single red rose continued to show up. Jack Benny died. The day after the funeral, a single rose showed up for Mrs. Benny. After several days Mrs. Benny went to the florist and said, “I don’t know if you realize this or not, but Mr. Benny passed away. I know it is kind of you, but you don’t need to do this any longer.” The florist responded, “Mrs. Benny, you don’t understand. Jack made provisions years ago to provide you a single red rose every day you are alive.”
This story challenged me to communicate my love more consistently! Perhaps you, too, need to express your love more often. Here are a few ideas to help get us started:
- Celebrate the 14th of each month as Valentine’s Day.
- Buy extra Valentine’s Day cards and send them on a no special occasion day.
- Email someone special Bible verses that show love.
- Bake heart-shaped cookies in August!
- Leave ‘heart shaped’ notes in inconspicuous places for your loved one to find.
- Have a “Child of the Week.”
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”—1 John 4:7
