Last Valentine’s Day, I received news of a trip to Europe, over a candlelit meal. This year, I’ll be at a funeral home viewing. Not exactly the Valentine’s celebration of my dreams.
But you know what?
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, and I don’t just take that as romantic love. Of course, it’s wonderful to celebrate, but love is so much broader than that. Maybe that’s “old love” talking (go read Melanie Shankle’s book, The Antelope in the Living Room), but consider my day. I’m going to be surrounded by, not only my lifetime love, but his family, who became mine 30 years ago. It’ll be a precious reunion of faces and hearts, in itself a celebration of the romantic loves of the original couples represented, their legacies on display.
How better to mark the holiday of love than a celebration of it in a life well-lived? As I hold my man’s hand, on this special day, I doubt I’ll be able to think of a single way.
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 1
Corinthians 13:12-13 MSG