You Are Loved. You Are Beautiful. You Are Good.

This week our culture will celebrate “Valentine’s Day” which is intended to be a celebration of love in its many forms. It’s roots are less than pretty, but in its current form it’s supposed to remind us of the people we love. Here in the United States, we tend to hyperfocus on romantic love, and with the commercialization of pretty much every holiday, we get flooded with images of flowers and chocolates to give to our “sweetheart.”

But the reality of our world is that there are so many other forms of love very worth holding up.

In English, we tend to have just one word that we use when speaking about love. But the Greeks have many words that they use to describe love. For example:

Eros  – describing passion, desire or sexual love.

Philia- friendship or the love between close friends. 

Storge – family love, especially between parents and children. 

Agape – unconditional, selfless love. 

Pragma – long-term love, or a mature, realistic love that’s common in long-established relationships. 

Ludus – playful love. 

Philautia – love of the self. 

Clearly there are many loves that can be celebrated!

One love that we might celebrate today comes from our first reading from Genesis 1. This creation story from the Hebrew scriptures describes God creating light and then creating the earth, sky and water. Then God starts creating vegetation, the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky.

After each entity is created there emerges a recurring refrain, “And God saw how good it was.” The Hebrew word used is “tov” which, like many Hebrew words, can have multiple, nuanced meanings. It can mean “good” but is also can mean beautiful, loved, fulfilling its purpose or morally good.

Thus I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that when God looked at everything created, God said, “You are loved. You are beautiful. You are good.”

Just try to take those words in for a minute. You are loved. You are beautiful. You are good. What do you notice happening in you when you try to take those words in?

In our gospel from Mark 6, we have yet another story of love. Jesus crosses over the Sea of Galilee and people began to bring the sick or injured to him. The passage says, “whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.”

I often picture Jesus at moments like this and I imagine the incredible love and compassion that he had for people – and especially his love and care for all those who had been left out or left behind somehow.

The way I read this passage is that Jesus was doing to and for people what God was doing to and for all of creation in Genesis. Jesus was saying to people, “You are loved. You are beautiful. You are good.” This is what he offered to everyone.

Recently I was sitting with a person who has a lot of social anxiety. Their inner chatter fills their head with all kinds of negativity about not being good enough, not being smart enough and being worthless. Thus going out into the world feels risky because they are scared that the inner critic might be right.

My guess is that we all suffer from our own forms of inner criticism. We may not say the same harsh things to ourselves or to the same degree, but there is often a lot of background noise in our heads related to some core fears or judgements.

But our readings today remind us that there is a Voice that speaks life into us that is deeper than any other voice that may be there. It is the voice of God that was heard at the dawn of creation. It is the voice of Jesus as he comes upon us in the midst of our journey. It is the voice that says, “You are loved. You are beautiful. You are good.”

For today, try to just rest in those words and bring them to mind anytime some negativity arises. And this week, as we celebrate a cultural holiday of love, may we celebrate the many forms of love and let our words and actions show others how loved, beautiful and good they are.