We always do a craft together for Valentine’s Day. I’m talking about my granddaughter and me.
She loves crafting; and I had just read her the story in the book under the kitchen tree about St. Valentine.
If you want to read it too; you can purchase this same little book by clicking into the place to purchase it at the bottom of this page.
We love the story of St. Valentine and how it points to the solidity of the family, the way that God designed it to be. I’ve often thought when things go wrong with the whole concept of family it is usually because no one took God’s definition and reinforced it when children were still in their early, foundational years.
My grown kids are doing an awesome job of this with our grandchildren, but every now and then I throw in a few pointers too.
I want them all to have a good solid definition of biblical love; the love that comes from the fact that God is love.
So after we read the story of St. Valentine; my granddaughter and I decided to create a “Love is” tree for Valentine’s Day.
I had already decorated the house in the hopes of making everything look and feel like a rustic mountain cottage for the rest of winter. For the last few weeks we have all been pretending that our house is on an extended mountain vacation. Warm cozy fires, good food, lots of stories with hot chocolate and crafts. It has been a great way to spend the cold, gray winter days.
Since we had used this rustic theme, I bought ornaments that were cut from trees with the bark still in tact. They seemed to match our décor perfectly. We got busy and glued red and pink hearts on one side of the wood then decoupaged over that side. Next; we flipped the little round wooden ornament over to the other side.
On that side we typed God’s definition of what love is. We cut out the words and glued them on to the rustic ornaments, using one definition on each ornament.
Then we brushed these words with decoupage too. Before threading the ornaments with a wooden bead and some twine, we let them become completely dry. They were very rustic, but very pretty.
The words we typed on the paper we glued on one side were taken from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
We decided we would also put the verse “God is love” on a sign at the foot of our tree.
As we made each one I read it to my granddaughter, silently praying in my heart that I would always display these things before her (and my grandsons as well) as she grew up. It was my sincere hope that she would know nothing but this type of amazing love from God.
I prayed that she would learn how to share these things with others.
She was very curious and interested in all of the definitions of the words we used for this simple little craft. I could tell she was pondering them as well as the story of St. Valentine. I had read the story to her last year; but she didn’t remember it. This year it seemed to have made a much larger impression on her.
I loved her comment when she said: “I didn’t know there are SO MANY ways to love. We should NEVER run out of reasons!”
And it is so true.
I loved our plain little “Love is” tree more than any of the other fancy and sophisticated trees and/or seasonal decorations that we had done so far.
In it’s simple, rustic elegance; it told the story so well.
When we were done we went back to baking cookies and making rainbows out of play-dough on the table in the kitchen. The tree stood looking on from a window full of love.
It was one of those priceless days full of unexpected moments that you never want to forget.