Preschoolers are pros at cultivating relationships. Have you ever watched them on the playground? From about the age of 3 and on up, they love to play with their peers. You can see them learning together as they pick up a leaf and peer at its veining. You can watch their delight as they chase a butterfly or compare snowflakes that have fallen on their gloves. When another child falls, preschoolers will rush to the child to help them up. They don’t discriminate based on age or race or gender or socioeconomic situation. Preschoolers just have a natural love for each other, even when they are meeting for the very first time.

Missionaries become pros at cultivating relationships, too. Wherever they go, that is their missions field. At the coffee shop, they are looking for 1 who looks lost or alone. At the laundry, they look for the single parent who needs a special touch. On campus, they seek out those who may be homesick or lonely. In the park or the athletic field, they connect with families who don’t know the Lord.

As we enter February, our thoughts move from the Christmas season to the celebration of Valentine’s Day. During this month, we spend time thinking of ways to demonstrate our love for friends and family. It is a season filled with beautiful opportunities to step into the world around us to share God’s love with others.

Dictionary.com says that the phrase step into means to “Involve oneself or intervene” in a situation. So, saying that we will step into the world to show Christ’s love infers much more than simply saying “I love you.” Stepping into the world means that we put our love into action.

John, the beloved disciple, said, “Dear Children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18 NIV¹).

Step into the world. Develop a Christ-centeredness that flows into an others-centeredness. Let’s place our selfish concerns, including our fears, behind us and step out in courage and boldness. Instead of thinking of stepping into the world as a duty, begin to look at it as a privilege.

“Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you” (Isa. 60:1–2 NIV¹)

What a beautiful prophecy of the coming of our Lord. As we continue pondering how to step out into our world, we must immediately turn our thoughts to Jesus, our Light, who stepped from the ethereal beauty and safety of His heavenly kingdom to bring hope and life into a world overcome by darkness and fear. He stepped out boldly and with great love for his people.

During this Christmas season, spend time meditating on His willingness to step out for us. But, don’t stop there. Meditate, too, on His command that we are to “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven” (Matt. 5:16 NIV).

Allow Christ’s words to spur you to acts of compassion and service.

Servanthood. Living humbly. Denying self. None of these are attitudes or attributes that people clamor to develop today. And, yet, these are exactly the attributes that Jesus displayed for us as He walked this earth. Does it amaze you to consider how Jesus continually turned human perspective upside-down?

On the night that He would be betrayed, before the Passover Feast, Jesus rose and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Following this outrageous act of humility, Jesus said to them, “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” (John 13:13–15 NIV¹).

Jesus was their Lord and their Teacher, yet he knelt before them in humble servitude. As he began to wash their feet, I wonder if the disciples reflected on other words He had spoken, “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Matt. 20:28). “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). “The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matt. 23:11).