“Love is the funny feeling that you feel when feel you have a feeling that you never felt before.”

When someone asks, “How will I know when I fall in love?,” many of us are guilty of saying, “You will just know.”

It is a feeling like no other, a deep feeling, a feeling that makes you cry and laugh. It’s well a feeling that you have never felt before.

Around Valentine’s Day, we hear a lot about how to express our love to another in our lives — flowers, candy, jewelry, this gift, that gift and on and on. These things are purchased so they will say, “I love you,” to that special someone in our lives.

There probably is some small truth in these traditions, but the way we live our lives, the way we connect throughout the year through the good and the bad, says a whole lot more than a one-day or one-gift expression.

The well-known verse from the Gospel of John starts with “For God so loved …” For God loved the world, his creation, the water and the land, the trees and the flowers but, most of all, the people that he created.

Therefore, God so loved you!

You are loved by the highest being of all, the creator of all things and all people.

How did he show that love?

“…He gave his only son that whoever believes in him would have eternal life.”

No flowers that wilt here. No candy that goes bad. No jewelry that may tarnish or go out of style. No, God sent Jesus into the world to show how much he loves us.

The purpose of Jesus coming into this world of humanity was to die for our sins and give us the opportunity for forgiveness and eternal life in the Kingdom of God. I love my wife. You may be blessed with someone you love and loves you. I just want to remind you in this season of the expression of love that God loves you.

“No greater love is this than one would lay down his life for a friend.” (John 15;13)

Jesus did just that for you, paying the price for the sins of the world — including you — that you might know God.

As we journey through the days of Lent and make our way to the cross of Jesus Christ and his victory over sin and death, know this day and all days, you are loved.

How will you know? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, mind and soul.

Done in the right spirit, with just a small amount of faith, you will know the forgiveness of God.

It’s a feeling that you have never felt before.

The Rev. Farley Stuart pastors First United Methodist Church located at 204 S. Main St. He can be reaced at 744-5410 or farley@winfumnc.org.