The Smoothest Pass-It-Forward
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a home of love where birthdays were heightened to the remembrance of the miracle of conception and birth; where my mother literally put her heart into baking a heart-shaped cake because I was born within a few hours of Valentine’s Day.
Our parents brought seven children into the world. Measuring probabilities when some of the kids were in their teens and some were toddlers would have stupefied Einstein - but not my mom.
Looking back, I see how our house resembled some degree of order. Connection. My mom connected with the three oldest and fortunately for the next four boys, the elders were all girls. They changed diapers, watched and played with us. Some even adored us. Imagine that!
That is exactly the portal to heaven that God had planned. When we come to understand that Christ is the source of all love, we have made the ultimate connection. Before long, we simply want to do what He did for us in the same manner Mom modeled for my older sisters.
Connections are not portals when we connect only in theory or admiration. You can esteem the person who has given you so much without applying that same service to others.
St. Valentine became a patron saint for lovers because he received the great love of Jesus Christ and wanted that connection for young couples. When he clandestinely married them because it stepped on the toes of the Roman Empire’s military conscription system, he was able to send them off with “You may now love your bride” and not just, “You may now kiss your bride.”
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Connections of love on earth are portals to heaven like few others. But even if someone is denied familial or parental love, they have only to connect with Christ in order to have their subsequent connections be altered for eternity. When we find Christ, we have found the ultimate “pass it forward.”
I found the one my heart loves…Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another
Song of Solomon 3:4 NIV, 1 John 4:11 NIV