Last week, there was a Post about the many boxes Edward and I have opened from our family in Estates. The thing about, "Opening the box...."
You just never know what you are going to find. My father had a terrible Christmas when he was two years old, he had a terrible case of Chicken Pox and wouldn't even speak. My grandmother Bit wrote Daddy spent his Christmas leaning on her legs and ankles. She was very relieved when he went back to being chatty the next week.
My Grandmother Anita's box was Valentines Cards, Christmas Cards and Anniversary and no occasion whatsoever letters from my grandfather who had died before World War II. Ray was an architect, drew extremely well, and Ray left amazingly detailed love letters in a beautiful hand. My mother remembered the letters and cards, but hadn't seen these in 50 years. Grandmother Anita had cleared drawers in a chest of drawers in her room, the decades old correspondence was in new condition. Mother promptly framed them and hung them on the walls. I looked at my mother and said, "He is named Ray because he is Light. Love and Light." Mother said he definitely believed Jesus. Anita wore her wedding rings in widowhood for 52 years, Anita would call us on the phone, elatedly, and tell us with great joy when she dreamed of Ray in Heaven. Anita always called him Ray and after a few decades, we did too.
Valentine's Day is one of the days we tend to get things we don't keep for a long time. Sort of an inverse relationship with Steadfast Love.
I love to have flowers. Love that.
If we could give the best gift, wouldn't we give - more years together. More times to have Joy. More peace. More Love.
Ray didn't live to be old, yet he left more Love. More Joy.
What would be more precious than Forever?
Give Life along with the Flowers and Chocolates.
Song of Songs 6:3
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies.
Psalm 60:5, 108:6
That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand
and answer
Song of Solomon 1:16
Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.
Song of Solomon 2:8
The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
Matthew 3:17
And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 12:18
My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will proclaim justice to the nations
Matthew 17:5
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
Acts 15:25
Seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul
Romans 9:25
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
Romans 11:28a
Regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
Romans 16:5
Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
Romans 16:8
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.
Romans 16:9
Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.
Romans 16:12
Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 4:17
That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
2 Corinthians 12:19a
It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding,beloved.
Ephesians 1:6
To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 5:1
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Ephesians 6:21
So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.
Philippians 4:1
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
2 Timothy 1:2
To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philemon 1:16
no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
Jesus and His Beloved Brothers
James 1:16
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers:
let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
James 2:5
Listen, my beloved brothers,
has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom,
which He has promised to those who love Him?
Jude 1:17
You must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:20
You, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith
and praying in the Holy Spirit,