The Heart Symbol for Chrismons

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       The heart shape in its metaphorical or symbolic sense as the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially (but not exclusively) romantic love.

       The combination of the heart shape and its use within the heart metaphor developed at the end of the Middle Ages, although the shape has been used in many ancient epigraphy monuments and texts. With possible early examples or direct predecessors in the 13th to 14th century, the familiar symbol of the heart representing love developed in the 15th century, and became popular in Europe during the 16th. Before the 14th century, the heart shape was not associated with the meaning of the heart metaphor. The geometric shape itself is found in much earlier sources, but in such instances does not depict a heart, but typically foliage: in examples from antiquity fig leaves, and in medieval iconography and heraldry typically the leaves of ivy and of the water-lily.

Scripture References for Heart Chrismons:

• "But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul." Joshua 22:5 (NIV)
• "Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart." Psalm 119:2 (NIV)
• "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24 (NIV)
• "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)