“Happy Valentine’s Day, Arlene!”

“Hiiiiii, Miss Déirdre!”

“I made you some cookies and just want you to know that I love you.”

“Awww, thank you.” [big hug]

I got to hear this delightful conversation repeated several times this evening while making Sunday school visits with my friend, Déirdre.

But one conversation ended more memorably.

“I want you to know that I love you.”

“I do know that.”

“How?”

“’Cuz you came.”

Well, of course! Wouldn’t you believe that someone loved you if they came to your house just to say so?!

As Déirdre and I walked back to her car, that sweet girl’s statement kept turning in my mind: ’Cuz you came.

I remembered the Sunday school teachers who visited me when I was in elementary school. And, yes, their visits did make me feel loved and special.

But I thought, too, of the One who has loved me with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and expressed it when He left the spender of Heaven and came to Earth. If Jesus were to stand on my doorstep and say, “How do you know that I love you?” I could repeat little Arlene’s answer, “’Cuz You came.”

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us…

But the verse doesn’t end there.

…and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.—1 John 3:16

Our response to God’s love ought to be that we give that love to others. In other words, ‘cuz He came, we should go—touching lives so significantly with Christ’s love that they can feel it.

It’s easy to say we love others—lost people and even our Christian friends. But are we demonstrating that love?

Who could affirm that they know you love them “’cuz you came”?