February 2025 Devotional: Pieces

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By Captain Isabella Green
Wrangell, AK Corps – Alaska Division

Based on the song “Pieces” by Steffany Gretzinger

The summer I turned 18, I started dating a guy I was convinced would be the one. He was a Christian, he loved children and wanted a family, our life goals lined up, and we shared the same calling. He on paper, was everything I was looking for.

But the summer ended, and our relationship turned into a long-distance one. I would write him letters every day. Pouring my heart into them. Drawing little pictures and sharing all that I had going on. I never got letters back. I would call him often, eager to hear his voice and share about my day. I would wait in my room, counting the phone rings as I waited for him to answer. I left a lot of voicemails sitting in that room.

As the months passed, I heard from him less and less. The phone calls that did get answered became shorter and shorter, and the texts less and less. Finally, around Christmas time we were reunited. My family drove 6 hours in Alaskan winter to meet him, spending a weekend near where he was staying so that we could have time together.

I was so eager, so excited to see him. And when we met up, my heart soared. The months of hurt and being ignored got tucked away and ignored. He was here, and everything was going to be okay.
But I would grab his hand, and he would let mine go. I would wrap my arm through his, and he pulled away. I would smile at him, and he would look down. The pieces of my heart crumbled a little more each time.

The weekend ended, and we went our separate ways again. I did not hear anything from him the day I left. Nor the day after, nor the day after that. A week later, his name lit up my phone screen as he called me. The call was short, and simply informed me that he felt he had been leading me on for months now, that his feelings were no longer there, and that it would be best if we broke it off. His name never showed up on my phone again, and the pieces he left me in were scattered on the floor.

He left me in pieces, after only ever offering me pieces of himself. Pieces of his attention, pieces of his affection, pieces of his care. Just enough to string me on, to keep me looking for more, but never enough to truly make me feel loved.

It was in the season of picking up my pieces, that I learned Gods love never comes in pieces. As I stumbled into the goodness of God, heartbroken and hopes for the future shattered, I found myself enveloped in a love so strong and so deep, that it covered me in totality.

God picked up the pieces and put me back together again. Patching me up in a beautiful new design. Still me, but stronger. Still me, but with an understanding of what it truly means to be loved.
God loves in totality. He loves unconditionally. He loves without care of if others have deemed you unlovable.

Romans 5:8 tells us that, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

His love for us is so deep, so true, that before we even knew Him, He died for us. Before we could ever choose Him, He chose us. When humanity was separated from Him, He sent His son to destroy the divide. And in His death the divide was shattered, left in pieces, allowing us to be truly whole in Him.

God does not love in pieces. He does not give us only part of himself. He gives us His all. He loves in totality and pours into us from a cup that never runs empty. His love is true, pure, and unconditional. It is given, without care of if we are worthy of it or not. It is there for us in the darkest valleys of our lives. And it is there for us when everything is going right.

God’s love for us is always there, even when we are not seeking it out. And at just the right moment, it will come crashing down in a mighty wave, overwhelming and washing out everything else. Every sense of doubt, of anger, of hurt, gone in the great wave that is His love. In His fullness, He will sweep the pieces up, and patch them back together again. Stitched up by His love and left new, ever more beautiful than before.

His fully given, unrestrained, and unconditional love, will leave us overflowing with a love so pure and true, that we simply must share it. His love is never given in pieces and will never leave us in pieces.

February 2025 Craft: You Are Loved Heart Craft

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By Captain Serina Woods
Haines, AK Corps – Alaska Division

Supplies Needed:

  • Cardboard for each person 8 x 11 (recycled cardboard)
  • Puzzle Pieces (500 is what I used)
  • 1 Big heart and 1 small heart (patterns included in the downloadable instructions)
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • X-Acto Knife
  • Red Spray Paint – fast drying
  • Cutting board or large cardboard piece
  • Cardstock for banner

Directions:

Before craft preparation

Step 1: Print out hearts – one large and one small for each person (Pattern included in the downloadable instructions below).

Step 2: Print Banners using cardstock (I used Baguet Script – 48)

Working on craft

Step 3: Glue big hear to cardboard, cut out big heart around out edge.

Step 4: Cut out small heart and glut to big heart, center it. Then using X-Acto knife to cut out small heart. This will create a frame heart.

Step 5: Glue puzzle pieces to frame heart making sure some pieces are a little off the frame on both the outer frame and inside frame as as close to each other as possible.

Step 6: Place more puzzle pieces on top of the first layer to make it a double layer. Put glue directly on to puzzle pieces. Let glue dry for 10 minutes.

Step 7: Take fast drying spray paint outside in a shallow cardboard box. Spray heart piece two times. Allow time for first layer to dry. (Optional spray some pieces a different color for a top color).

Step 8: Turn over to glue banner on to back of frame

Download printable directions and templates:

You are Loved craftDownload

As you craft enjoy this song by Riley Clemmons, Loved By You:

February 2025 Bible Study: You are Loved

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By Major Jennifer Erickson-King
Anchorage Citadel, AK – Alaska Division

Supplies Needed:

  • Bible (Any Translation)
  • Journal / Piece of Paper
  • Mirror
  • Pen / Pencil with Eraser

Scripture Verses:

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.” Psalm 139:14-16

Take a moment and look at yourself in the mirror and who do you see? What do you see?

Do you see yourself in the mirror as God sees you?

God sees you as His beautiful and loving daughter, created in His perfect image. You are beautiful. You are amazing. You are fearfully and wonderfully made by His own mighty hands. There’s no one like you on this earth. You are special. You are unique. You are truly loved

In your journal or on a piece of paper, write down all the beautiful and wonderful characteristics, qualities, and talents that God gave you and only you. And also write down your thoughts when you know that God truly loves you. That you are truly loved by our Creator. When we think about all the beautiful and wonderful characteristics, qualities, and talents that God gave us, I believe that we will be truly amazed by His creation, in us. As we all know, our fingerprints are unique to us as individuals.

In fact, the National Forensic Science Technology Center states that, “no two people have ever been found to have the same fingerprints — including identical twins.” Also, it’s important to keep in mind that fingerprints also vary between your own fingers — this means you have a unique print on each finger. But, more importantly, we were created by God, in His perfect image. We are His daughters. We are His children. We are His.

Isn’t this amazing? I really think so. How we were created in special ways that no one else is created like us. Even the details of our hair on our head is that He is the only one that knows how many strands of hair are on our head. Isn’t that also amazing? In Luke 12:7, it says, “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” You are loved.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Unlike our love, God’s love is free. What this really means is that there were no conditions God saw in us when He set His love upon us. God didn’t love us because we were lovely—that wouldn’t be free love. God loves us because He loves us (John 3:16). Nothing constrains his love. Nothing will ever change that. Because we are His lovely daughters created in unique ways. More than anything, the Bible tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He isn’t just loving, but He is the very definition of love, true love. He loves us because He created us. His affection is unconditional. He both generates and demonstrates love — and that love endures forever. (Psalm 100:5)

Each day is a beautiful gift from God. I am reminded how blessed we are and to take every opportunity to minister to each other in ways that He shows us, to be open to leading of His Holy Spirit in us and through us. I am also reminded to live my life fullest for God and God only; to spend every moment worshipping, glorifying, praising, and honoring Him in every aspect of my life. To spend quiet times with Him, to read His amazing, beautiful, and living words, to never stop praying for everyone and everything, to make joyful noise unto Him, and to always give thanks for all His blessings in our beautiful lives.

You might wonder if God really and truly loves you? You might also ask yourself, why me? Why does God love me? With all my past mistakes, with all my wrongdoing, and with all my faults? I’m not good enough. I’m not worthy. I’m a sinner. We may have many reasons to wonder and question. But the answer is YES! YES, God loves you for who you are. Because you are His. And He doesn’t want us to stay where we are. In Matthew 6:33, it says; “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” He wants us to draw closer to Him, to deepen our relationship with Him, to be thirsty and hungry for His word, and to be more Christlike each day.

“To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second commandment is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is found in Matthew 22:27-29. When we truly realize God’s love for us and how much He desires us to deepen our relationship with Him. We will feel and we will know His amazing and unconditional love for us. We know the true meaning of love, loving Him, loving others, and knowing that we are loved by Him.

Next time that you look in the mirror, know that you are His beautiful and loved creation. You are enough. You are amazing. You are a gift from God. You are beautiful especially in His sight. You are God’s original work of art. You are beautifully created. You are His. YOU ARE LOVED!!

GOD IS ALWAYS:
Best
Everlasting
Amazing
Unconditional
Trustworthy
Inspirational
Faithful
Unwavering
Loving

YOU ARE:
Beautiful
Enough
Awesome
Unforgettable
Talented
Incredible
Fabulous
Unique
Loved

Enjoy the song, “I Am Loved” by Mack Brock

Scripture Verses and Quotes on “Love / Loved”
“If God planned you for me and me for you, then nothing can separate you from me and me from you.” (Mark 10:9)

“Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:14

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” (Khalil Gibran)
“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” (Victor Hugo)
“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.” (Mother Teresa)
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
(Lao Tzu)
“The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. And the best time to love is now.” (Rick Warren)

Download a printable version of the Bible Study:

February 2025 Bible StudyDownload

February 2025 Newsletter

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You are Priceless! You are Loved! That is the theme of this month’s newsletter.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. Ephesians 3:18 NLT

Included in this month’s newsletter is a devotion, prayer idea, conversation starters, and a Bible reading plan that focuses on the immeasurably great love God has for us. Also included are “Identity Statements,” verses that proclaim who you are in Christ for you to memorize, meditate on, and claim in your life.

Download this month’s newsletter:

February 2025 NewsletterDownload

You are Priceless! You are Loved! And as Micah Tyler reminds us, there’s never been a moment that we haven’t been loved by God

God’s Love Story

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By Major Beth Desplancke

I am a sucker for a good love story (give me a Romcom or a good Hallmark movie any day!). As a child, my favorite stories began with “Once upon a time…” and ended with, “They lived happily ever after.” I remember as a young teenager seeing the movie “Love Story” (for the record, I wasn’t born yet when it was released in 1970). With a title like that, it had to be a love story. Wrong! Yes, Jenny and Oliver fall in love, but there is no happily ever after for these two. Jenny dies! (Since it is more than a 50-year-old movie, I don’t think I have to worry about spoilers.) Then in High School I had to read a William Shakespeare play that is a classic and is called a romance. Once again, I was disappointed as I slogged through old English in poetic form, which was often hard to understand, to discover that Romeo and Juliet both die!

The best love story of all is the love story that God has written. God is love (1 John 4:8) and all that He is and all that He does flows out of that fact. He showed His love by creating a beautiful world – with trees, flowers, plants, animals, fish, birds – and then He created humans, made in His image, to have fellowship with Him.

We know the story. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, enjoying life and everything is wonderful. And then the hiccup of the love story – Satan slithered into the garden as a serpent and has a conversation with Eve (Genesis 3). That conversation led Eve and Adam both into eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree God had clearly told them not to eat from. Immediately they were ashamed and tried to cover themselves and they hid from God.

Genesis 3:8 says, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” It implies that God did this regularly – where He would come and spend time with and fellowship with His created ones. He calls out to them, asking where Adam is at. He knew both where they were hiding and the reason why. In Genesis 2:17, God had been clear to Adam about the one rule – eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you will experience death.

Lovingly He disciplines them, and speaks words of hardship, pain, sweat toil and thorns, but not words of death to Adam and Eve. He does speak words of death to the serpent. In Genesis 3:15 (which has become one my many favorite verses in the Bible), He tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is the first promise of a Messiah, a Savior, who would come to pay the price for the sins of humanity. Yes, the serpent will strike the heel of the Messiah. A wound to the heel is painful but is not fatal. Satan would think he would win, but the Messiah would crush the serpent’s head, which is indeed a fatal blow.

Afterwards, God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins (an animal had to die as a sacrifice to provide clothes for them to wear) and God lovingly sent Adam and Eve out from the garden and blocked the way to the tree of life. Not as punishment, but as protection. If they were to eat of the tree of life in their current condition of sin, they would be separated from God forever. If that were the end of the story, that wouldn’t be much of a love story because isn’t a happy ending.

Hallelujah God’s story doesn’t end with Genesis chapter 3. God lovingly sent His Son, Jesus, to be born as a baby, to grow up as a man, to live a normal human life, to be the sacrifice to pay for our sins. He was the only person who could take the place for us. God made him who had no sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus died the death we all deserved. He died and was buried. Once again, that isn’t the end of the story. He didn’t stay dead but rose again. After 40 days Jesus went up to heaven with the promise that He is returning someday for those who have chosen to accept God’s gracious gift of love through His Son Jesus.

God made it possible for those who choose God’s love story, we will have a happy ending. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Someday, in true love story fashion, Jesus, our Bridegroom, is going to return for His Bride (the Church – those who have received Him as their Savior), Satan will be defeated once and forever, and we will spend eternity with God (See Revelation 19-22). And for those who have received Christ as their Savior we can honestly say, “they lived happily ever after.” No other love story ever compares.

Hold your head up high, knowing you are dearly loved by God who was willing to pay the price for your sin by sending His Only Son to die in your place.

Enjoy Phil Wickman’s song, “How Great is Your Love:”