Love Letters and Lent

Celebrating love with the beginning of the 40 day love story of Lent

I am such a romantic and I love receiving letters, especially love letters and with Valentines Day just around the corner, I have been thinking about them frequently this week. Love letters and writing letters seem to be a lost art these day, with text messages, emails and social media coming the preferred methods for communicating now. Despite this, in this fast paced, autocorrecting, social media using world we now live in, I still prefer pen and paper. There is nothing quite like a handwritten letter.

As a teenager and then as a young adult, I would daydream about being sent handwritten letters which would hold declarations of undying love within the folded paper and inky scrawl.

Just before my 20th birthday I received a very special love letter of sorts which captured my heart. So profound was it’s impact, that, 15 years on, I can still recite it word for word.

It went….

“Allow me to romance you

Allow me to woo your heart,

The love that I provide for you, sustains and always lasts

I promise to be beside you,

Each step you take each day

Come discover a love like no other,

A romance to blow you away.”

Those words were so powerful and would melt even the hardest of hearts. Such a declaration of love! Phew! And blow me away they did indeed!

The Author of these beautiful, heartfelt words was not my beloved husband Kiel. Kiel has written hundreds of cards and letters over the years we have been together, but none have had the same sticking power as this one has. Nor could his words compete with these. Nor do they have to.

These words were poured into my heart while I sat alone in a church on a silent retreat. These words were from the heart of God to my heart. A heart of a young woman who longed to be loved in a deep and profound way. A love that only the Creator of the heart could provide to fill the God shaped hole that was there. I came to realise that the love we all seek, regardless of our vocation in life, finds it’s fulfilment in the heart of God. No earthly relationship will ever be able to love as fully as we need or desire. These earthly relationships should point us towards God. We are made whole only in His love.

As St Augustine writes in his Confessions; “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

This is a love we are all called to.

These words were for me then.

These words are for you now.

Regardless of your age, stage, path in life, God invites you to “come and discover a love like no other”.

This year, Valentines Day coincides with Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Season of Lent.  The coincidence is not lost on me and I love that it’s fallen this way because on this “day of love”, Valentines Day, we can contemplate God’s love and reflect on Lent as an unfolding love story, a 40 day love story.

The story of how much you are loved. So very loved.

Kiel and I write love letters to each other even after 14 years together. I always love finding them hidden. I love sharing with him in little random moments of the day, how much he is loved and treasured by me.  The inspiration for our little love letter writing game came from one of my dearest friends, Carolynn, when we were just teenagers. She shared with me a beautiful story, one of deep love and devotion, which spoke of a game called S.H.M.I.L.Y. that was played between a husband and wife over a lifetime of love. The story goes that they would leave these little love notes with SHMILY written on them for the other to find and then another note was hidden, to be found again. The acronym SHMILY stood for See How Much I Love You. This story stuck with me so much, what with my love of love letters, that I knew I’d love to play that game one day with my beloved.

And so when my beloved Kiel and I came to be, I shared the story with him and our S.H.M.I.L.Y journey began. Kiel left for his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and S.H.M.I.L.Y appeared sprawled in the sands atop Mt Sinai, on the shore of the River Jordan, at Bethany and in Bethlehem. When I left a few weeks later to travel Europe with my best friend Aimee, S.H.M.I.L.Y was written in the snow at the top of the tallest mountain in Switzerland, held on a card at the Vatican and written on  the fogged up tour bus windows. Kiel had also rang ahead to all the hotels I was staying at and left S.H.M.I.L.Y messages for me to receive when I arrived. Sometimes these were lost in translation!

During Lent and especially during Holy Week Jesus is writing S.H.M.I.L.Y on our hearts. Everything that Jesus does is pointing towards S.H.M.I.L.Y

See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He journeys with the disciples into Jerusalem knowing it will be His last time………..

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He enters on a donkey and is worshipped by the people shouting Hosanna ………….

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As His washes the feet of His disciples, instructing them to do as I have done…………..

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He celebrates the Last Supper breaking the bread and sharing the wine ……………..

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He prays alone in Gethsemane while His disciples fail to keep watch, tears of blood, in pain contemplating what is ahead …………………………………………………………………..

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He is brutally whipped, mocked and crowned with thorns………………………….…..

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He is forced to carry His heavy cross up to Golgotha, falling three times, yet carries on………

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As His arms outstretch, hands and feet nailed to the cross, he draws his last breath and dies…………

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

As He conquers death, wins you your freedom to choose eternal life with Him ……………

SHMILY See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

SHMILY ………See …...How.……. Much…….. I…….. Love……… You

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16 NRSV

Jesus does this all for love of YOU! He is tortured, suffers, dies, enters into Hell and then rises to new life because He Loves you! Because He wants to spend eternity with you. HE suffered so that you don’t have to. His love is a sacrificial love. His love is “like no other and will blow you away.” His cross becomes our bridge to get from this life to eternal life with Him in heaven.

Lent is our journey towards knowing and loving God in deeper and more profound ways. A journey of love, for love, to love, at the foot of the cross and finishing with the glory of the Resurrection.  The fasting, prayer and almsgiving we take up during lent, helps us make the journey and refine and ready our hearts to accept and then share that great divine love.

Jesus is offering you this great love. He will not force His love upon you and our gift of free will means we have to accept, receive it  and let that love flow into our lives and allow it to transform us.

Accepting this type of love can be difficult and sometimes, due to our broken and fallen nature, we can get caught in the trap of feeling like we don’t deserve God’s love, His all powerful, all consuming love. Perhaps we feel we are too broken, too far gone, not worthy, ashamed. But there is never “too far gone” in God’s book. He redeemed us all,  we just have to choose and want to be. We just have to accept it and embrace it.

God’s love far surpasses any love this side of Heaven. It is quite simply out of this world.

Jesus’ love letter to you this Valentine Day says “See How Much I Love You”. When you gaze upon a crucifix, Jesus on the cross, over these lenten days, contemplate Jesus speaking these words into your very heart…. See How Much I Love You…. Feel them. Accept them. Answer Him.

How will you enter into this upcoming lenten season? How will you answer Jesus’ love letter to you this Lent? How will you grow in this Divine love?

Will your message back to Him be: “See How Much I Love You, Lord”?

Wishing you all a very blessed Lent <3