A Banner of Love

 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Song of Solomon 2:4

It’s February and the world is focused on LOVE.

A walk through any store will find you surrounded with hearts, balloons, and flowers. When I see it, I always think: “Kids stuff”. Because as we enter adulthood and marital relationships, we quickly realize that love isn’t a rom-com. It’s down in the trenches dirty work. It’s forgiving when we don’t want to. It’s serving when inconvenient. It’s overlooking that same fault over and over and over again. Love is far more than a verb… it’s hard manual labor!

The first bible verses most of us think of when we hear the word “love” is 1 Corinthians 13. And, it is an excellent description of what love should be: patient, kind, love rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never fails. We also learn what love shouldn’t be: love isn’t boastful, arrogant, doesn’t behave poorly, doesn’t look for serve itself, isn’t easily provoked, thinks no evil, and doesn’t rejoice in the failure of others. I find it very hard to make it very far through that list of perfect love without finding some places I routinely fail. I try to remind myself that enduring is part of that list, and that because God doesn’t give up on me when I fail, I too must endure, even my own failures.

I have often said that making it through our first year of marriage was proof that we had sticking power. We didn’t have a lovely newlywed year. Married in June, by July his dad was very sick, and I had learned to do his feedings through his stomach tube and take care of his personal needs. In August, his dad was hospitalized, and I prepared to spend a week with him so that my sister-in-law could rest and Ray could work. Just a couple of nights in, I woke up freezing, and after asking for the 5th or 6th blanket to try to warm up, I looked in the mirror. At 27 years old, I had chickenpox. The nurses at the VA asked me to leave immediately, but I convinced them to let me stay in his room until my husband arrived with a promise to stay in the room and wear a mask. In October, we discovered we were expecting our first child. His dad was in and out of the hospital until he passed in December, just over six months into our marriage. My mother-in-law had been so focused on taking care of him, that she struggled alone. The stress of caring for and losing her husband set in motion her eventual descent into Alzheimer’s Disease and I began spending more and more time with her, getting her groceries, taking care of her needs. In March, I stumbled coming out the door and broke my leg in four places requiring a ride in an ambulance and emergency surgery. We ended up moving in with my parents while I recuperated since Ray worked shift work and my parents had built their new home handicap accessible due to my dad’s health concerns. I made multiple trips a week to various doctors as the broken leg and a late pregnancy made me high risk. We moved back into our house shortly after our first anniversary, only two weeks before our little Jack was to arrive. I remember finishing everything I wanted to do, the nursery was finally done, the house was super clean, and I laid accross our bed to watch a little tv when my water broke. After allowing me to push for four hours, we had to have a cesarean section. Back to my parents while I recovered… a few days into new motherhood, I developed a horrible infection between the inner and outer layers of the incision. I remember thinking one evening while my husband attended to the infection that this was what love looked like. Not the flowers and chocolate, extravagent dates, or butterflies in your stomach… true love is the willingness to do the hard things.

Looking further into the word love in scripture, an old children’s song played inself in my mind. Cedarmont Kids had a song out years ago, entitled, “His Banner Over Me is Love”. I always found it comforting and full of hope. “The Lord is mine and I am His… His banner over me is love.” He has claimed us with the blood of His Son, and we are safe in Him. I love the thought of it all. It’s so much more than salvation from my sins and Hell… He has claimed me and is glad to proclaim His love for me to the whole world. And just how does He proclaim it? With His great and mighty works in my life! His love provides for all our needs. He loves us as we are and at the same time continually gives us opportunity to become more and more like Him. Because of that our hope can be endless, because we know that He will ultimately perfect us in Him.

But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. Psalm 71:14-16

God’s love as a banner is noted first in Exodus as Moses builds an altar to the Lord calling him Jehovah Nissi, or The Lord is our Banner after the defeat of the Amalekites. You see, Moses could have no doubt about how the battle was won. As Aaron and Hur held his tired arms aloft, he knew he had nothing to do with the triumph on the battlefield. God’s love had provided the victory. The knowledge that God will fight our battles for us brings a great deal of confidence to the believer. We can go into the battles of life confidently flying His banner, trusting the outcome to Him for better or worse. A little later Moses would encounter God’s love in an even deeper way when God hid him in the cleft of a rock and passed before him declaring:

The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Exodus 34:6b

We see often in the Word, God reminding the people of what He has done for them in times long past. It seems important that we remember what He has done, so that we believe what He can and will do. Because that is true, it becomes obvious that God intends for us to not only remember the His deeds and the proof of His love that we find recorded in the Word, but the ones that we see in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. We all have those memories. And when we struggle with tough times, or even in good times, it’s good to spend some time remembering what our God is capable of.

US Military Flags with campaign streamers attached

As I thought about banners and what they mean to us, I couldn’t help but picture the military flags we see so often. My mind’s eye immediately went to an idea we don’t see often in small town America, but once you’ve seen it, it can be so illuminating that it is hard to forget. The campaign streamer, is a thin long streamer added to the top of a flag with writing denoting a particular battle or campaign and the year. They are a tool for remembrance. A way to visually honor the combat history and achievements of a unit. Seeing a flag decked out with all of those streamers is amazing, especially when you consider that there one in there somewhere that says: Lexington 1775, the beginning fight for our nation.

Considering God’s acts in my life and a way to make a remembrance of them has a way of assuring me of His love and care for me through some of the happiest and toughest times of my life. My campaign streamers would include, my salvation, my marriage, the birth life and salvation of my boys, and there would also be some banners that acknowledge not so great times, but those often are the times when His power and might was the most visible. When there is no other explanation for how I made it through something, His love and care for me become obvious.

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

We can trust that God is with us at all times through the Holy Spirit, and that He wants us to call out to Him, to give Him every issue and struggle we have. He can take us just the way we are, whether we be rejoicing in who He is or agonizing over something that we are struggling with. He wants to be there with us and for us and to make His love and power known in our lives

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50:15

Knowing all this, What would your campain streamers look like? What are the moments in your life that God very obviously showed up in your life? When were you made sure of His love? Sometimes, looking back at hard times makes it far easier to see God’s hand than when we are actually living through it. Take some time to look back in your mind’s eye and see God’s work in your own life. Write them down, reflect on them, and then take comfort in the truth that He loves you perfectly. He will always show up, He will never shy away from the tough times or the hard things. He comes right alongside us in our troubles because He loves us and wants only good things for us. His banner over us truly is love, perfect love.

Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; 1 Chronicles 16:8-12