Christ’s Love Expressed in Body Life

What follows is a report from the women in one of the churches I’m working with regarding what happened this past Valentine’s Day:

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How do you put love into words?  The brothers (men) in our church blessed the sisters (the women) with Christ’s love in such a beautiful way for this past Valentine’s Day.

Every brother contributed personal words of encouragement, love, and affirmation for each sister, and then the brothers combined all of these sentiments into a beautifully written memento for each of the ladies – a card. Each card came from all of the brothers as a group.

Each of the brothers read aloud and presented each personalized card (professionally done) along with a rose to a sister at the end of our weekly meeting.  (This was done as a group, not “one to one.”)

Many of us were brought to tears by the sheer sincerity and love that the brothers put into each of these works.  The love of Christ shone through this special gift, which will be kept and cherished by all.   Here are some things that the sisters had to say about what the brothers did:

“…it is amazing to see that each brother has seen so many different aspects of who we are in Christ. How wonderfully romantic in the Lord it was! I do not believe that I have EVER received such a remarkable…no, breathtaking Valentine’s Day gift in my life.  Thank you. brothers.”

“I had tears in my eyes! It was very encouraging and sweet of them. They really put a lot of thought into making the notes individual and blessing each of us! Way to go brothers!”

“As a single sister, I was touched that the married brothers would take the time to write such beautiful things about each sister instead of just their wives. It really blessed me to hear their hearts and the Lord’s heart through their words, especially on Valentine’s Day weekend when a single sister is mostly reminded of the lack of a (human) significant other! I was so grateful for their efforts, and I will treasure my letter.”

“So thoughtful, extremely creative!  Filled with the love of the Savior!  Made me feel loved in a pure way by all my brothers in Christ.  I will never forget it!”

“I love what the brothers did for us.  I will always have that memory of the men walking in singing and holding the rose and cards.  It melted my heart.  For them to take the time to write to each individual sister was so special.  A few of us have shrunk our cards and took a single petal from the roses and laminated them into book marks.  Thank you brothers very much, it will stay in my heart forever.  I could see Christ being shown through each one of you.”

“I have no words for this … I was so overwhelmed.”

What follows is a report from one of the men in the church about what the women did for them the next morning. He wrote this on his blog:

I just wanted to tell someone how overwhelmed I am by this Valentine’s weekend that I have had. It has been SOOOO amazing. I have been brought to tears a few times. Which is not hard to do these days.

The brothers in the church have been putting together something for all the sisters for valentines day. (We call the dudes in the church brothers because that is how we see each other, as a brotherhood. It sounds kind of weird but it doesn’t feel that way at all.) First of all we all wrote a little something about each of the sisters. Compliments, thoughts, how we saw Jesus in them. Then we took that and made it into cards for each sister. Even the younger sisters. We also bought roses to give out as well.

So after the meeting Saturday night all the brothers leave the room. We give out the cards at random. We all walk back in singing a song together (which I didn’t know so I ended up mouthing it the best I could). One by one we all read to the sisters the card and hand them the rose and the card. Most of them were tearing up the whole time. It was so awesome!

After we were done we sang a song that was to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne” but with different lyrics. I could barely sing I was chokin up so much. So dorky and real, beautiful, and hopelessly human. Just filled me up with so much good stuff. I loved it.

The next morning we got together for the brothers meetings (we get together twice a month and just plan stuff and talk. So do the sisters.) and the sisters had fixed us a hugely awesome delicious breakfast and they had made each of us a personalized mug. Each of them had our name, a picture, and a scripture on it.

If you have Reimagining Church, see pages 113-115. It contains a first-hand report from another church regarding a creative Valentine’s Day event. Very moving . . .