February is one of my favorite months of the year. The days are beginning to get longer after the solstice, pitchers & catchers report in the MLB, and every four years, we get a bonus day so the calendar can catch up with the rotation of the Earth. Also, love seems to be at the center of everything: commercials, diner specials or heart-shaped pizzas, and many people choose express their love on or around February 14, corresponding with the feast day of St. Valentine.

In his work The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis details the different ways that the word love is translated from the Greek of the Bible, each bearing their own meaning. You might have seen a Super Bowl commercial about it! There is storge, or familiar love. There is philia, friend love (or brotherly love), eros, passionate or romantic love, and agape, unconditional love. These are four of the ways that “love” is translated in the New Testament.

In his work, Lewis decides to give us a modern understanding of each word. Biblical scholars have widely chosen to translate the agape love of God as unconditional love, but Lewis attempts to reclaim that as a kind of love that gives with out expectation. He calls it charity.

I therefore ask you, what is one act of charity that you have noticed lately?

If Madison Avenue is stuck on romantic love (partner), friend love (philia), or even familiar love (the postal carrier), how have you noticed the ways that love defined as charity, or agape love has come into your life this month.

I wanted to share a story about this agape, or unconditional love that I witnessed recently. It was late January, and I was taking the Metro Blue Line back into Minneapolis from the Mall Of America. I was commuting back from the mall, carrying my espresso pods, and reading a sports article on my phone. Somewhere in South Minneapolis, a man got on my train-car who was clearly down on his luck. He was wearing a very weathered jacket, and carried with him his pillow and blanket in an old shopping bag.

I didn’t think much of the man as he stretched out on the fold-down benches, as he did seem to fit the bill of a senior citizen for whom those seats were prioritized. I did, however, notice that after a few stops, a patron about my age got on the light rail, and began to speak to man.

The patron of note seemed to be a normal guy: he had a hat, camouflaged jacket (though in the urban/cool way, not in the un-ironic/hunting way), and didn’t seem to care that the person to whom he was speaking hadn’t showered in any discernible timeframe.

I began to notice the conversation most when I saw the older, first man loudly object to something the younger man was offering. I closed my phone and began to survey the scene. It was only then that I realized that the first, older man only had socks covering his feet. The younger man persisted. He had a pair of shoes at home, and didn’t live far from the next stop, which was approaching. The younger man then took off his shoes, gave them to the older man without shoes, and stood up to exit the train. The older man protested. The younger man didn’t seem to mind.

He said, “I live close, and it isn’t too cold out.” With those words, he gave the first gentleman his shoes; and walked into the rain, salt, and slush in his socks.

I was struck. Nowhere in my mind did I expect to encounter this level of charity on my way home from the mall.

But, sometimes… That is how the radical love of God can be. It isn’t always a sweeping, broad act of kindness and grace. It is more often the small, innocuous acts of ordinary individuals, collectively making the world a more loving and trustworthy place.

In this season of Valentine’s Day, and of love; may you be aware of all of the ways that God is working for the charity or agape love of the world, and even it seems small, do your part as well.

Dan Arvid Nelson