What Is the Color of Love?
Valentine is approaching and people's hearts turn to love…or so the saying goes. How do you express love? Do you write poems or sonnets, as Shakespeare was fond of doing? He compared his love to a rose, a summer's day, perfume, snow, and various species of birds. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem has become so well-known that the first line is considered a classic love cliché: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Perhaps you send flowers. Almost 200million flowers are sold and delivered annually on Valentine's Day – 115 million are red roses. Over 180 million Valentine cards are exchanged with approximately eighty percent featuring hearts somewhere on them, with the red heart being the most popular symbol use (Statistic Brain).
What color do you associate with love? Red roses are preferred; red hearts are the favorite symbol; so red seems to be the color most often associated with love. Scripture seems to agree with this selection – red – the color of blood. How do love and blood relate? In its many references to love, the giving of life or shedding of blood is necessary.
The first blood was shed in the Garden of Eden when God, in His love, made tunics of skin and clothed Adam and Eve after they had sinned (Genesis 3:21). Where di God get the skins? An animal (possibly a lamb) had to be slain – blood was shed to cover Adam and Eve's sin. In Egypt, when God delivered His people, the blood of a one-year-old perfect lamb was placed over the doorposts of the homes of the Israelites, so the death angel would pass over their houses and they would not die. We're told in 1 Corinthians 5:7, ‘…Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.' ‘He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”
“God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). God gave us the pattern of true love – when you love someone dearly, you are willing to give freely to the point of self-sacrifice. God paid dearly with the life of His Son, the highest price He could pay (ASB).
So, what color is love? Gordon Jensen tells us beautifully in his song. “In letters of crimson, God wrote His love on a hillside so long, long ago. For you and for me Jesus died, and love's greatest story was told. “I love you, I love you' – that's what Calvary said. “I love you, I love you, I love you' – written in red.' Down through the ages God wrote His love with the same hands that suffered and bled, giving all that He had to give, a message so easily read – “I love you, I love you,' – that's what Calvary said. “I love you, I love you, I love you' – written in red.'”