February 2025

all. The trouble with a holiday like Valentine's Day is that so many people can get left out.

Here's a love idea that doesn't leave anyone out: God.

1 John 4:16 and following says in part, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; We love because he first loved us. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

John 13:34 says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Romans 8:38 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

At Bethany, we know what love is. God is love, and God is for all, forever.

Blessings,

Pastor Deb

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When I go to baseball games with my brother, I have often thought that I should bring a big sign with me that says “BROTHER!” just in case the kiss cam focuses on us during the game. I feel the same way about going out to dinner with a friend on Valentine's Day. It's kind of sweet the way we want to help people celebrate their romantic relationships, but love is a little more nuanced than that.

There's the Hallmark and candy and jewelry and flowers commercialization of it that might be kind of fun to get caught up in if one is in sweet circumstances. There are so many awkward moments that come to mind though. There are folks who are recently bereaved, recently divorced, happily single, or unhappily single, or just plain private about it