A Valentine Tree {Made Possible Because of Another Tree}

Snippets of paper have always been a favorite means of decorating in the Beals household. They’re beautiful and inexpensive and can be manipulated to make pictures, snowflakes, cards and tags, garlands, and Valentines. And manipulated they are.

When the kids were little, they’d make bowls of hundreds of pieces of paper and call it paper soup. It kept them busy for hours.

Hope and I decide that this week, we’d make Valentines. We’ll hang them over the kitchen sink, tucked in the red velour ribbon, greenery, and lights still up from Christmas, because extending the use of lights and greenery is fine by us.

And we decide to make a Valentine Tree. We cut out names and hearts. Hope suggests we put Bible verses on the tree, then told me matter-of-factly:

“It’s because Jesus died for us that we can make this tree, you know, Mom?” Jesus died on a tree, perfect love and mercy demonstrated for us there. We love Him because He loved us. We only know love because of Him.

And while human love is often disappointing and evaporates, and people who cared leave or betray, and marriages crumble and fail, God’s love is never like that. It’s steadfast, from everlasting to everlasting. And there’s hope in that Tree. And so we make our simple tree, remembering True Love. And we listen to one of my favorite songs from the Galkin Evangelistic Team’s Album Christ Only, Always is The Precious Blood:

Before the cross I kneel and see
The measure of my sin
How You became a curse for me
Though You were innocent
The magnitude of Your great love
Was shown in full degree
When righteous blood, the crimson spill
Rained down from Calvary

CHORUS
Oh, the precious blood
That flowed from Mercy’s side
Washed away my sin
When Christ my Savior died
Oh, the precious blood
Of Christ the crucified
It speaks for me before Your throne
Where I stand justified

VERSE 2
And who am I that I should know
This treasure of such worth
My Savior’s pure atoning blood
Shed for the wrath I’d earned
For sin has stained my every deed
My every word and thought
What wondrous love that makes me one
Your priceless blood has bought

Amazing thought, huh? I’m justified by the Lord Jesus’ blood and sacrifice? The innocent died for the guilty. And the result when I trust His sacrifice? Me, declared innocent, though definitely guilty. Let that sink in.