What do you write about on Valentine’s Day when you’re a recent divorcee? Not an easy decision, let me tell you. The second Tuesday of each month is mine and I had planned to show you an amazing couple who are missionaries in Mexico. But when I discovered my turn to post fell on Valentine’s Day, I changed my mind and started praying, What, Lord, would you have me post?
I debated putting up the opening to 1 Corinthians 13.
I wondered if I should write something for those with broken hearts.
I thought about finding a different scripture passage about love.
I considered researching the history of Valentine’s Day. I mean after all, I’m thirty-seven and can’t rattle off its history. Surely I’m not the only one.
For two days I prayerfully wondered what to post.
While I wait, messages fly through the airwaves—radio, television and wireless internet—all of them scrambling and screaming for attention—This Valentine’s Day tell her that you love her/ Give the love of your life the very best/ Come find your soul mate/ We have more marriages than any other online site—they all cry—buy me—buy me—buy me.
But what is love, I wonder in Madeline L’Engle style.
Then this morning, the 13th, I listened to Misty Edwards at International House of Prayer, worshiping while reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts and somehow in the midst of this, I realize how extraordinary it is that I’ve met and supped with the true lover of my soul.
The thought gives me pause. I’ve met and supped with the love of my soul, and His banner over me is love!
The messages die. I know what I see represented on television will never satisfy. I know it on levels that I wish I didn’t—and yet I am thankful because otherwise I would have been content with scraps and called it a feast. How strange we have a day to celebrate love—but then seem to have forgotten what love actually is.
Madeline L’Engle also says, “What you think is not the point. What you do is what’s going to count.”
So here is the lover of my soul and what he did for me:
On this Valentine’s Day, I will praise Him, my betrothed (Hos 2:9) My husband, my maker (Isa 54:5). The One who asks where the certificate of divorce is (Isa 50:1). The One who calls me married and no longer forsaken (Isa 62:4).
And no matter where you are, I hope you do too—whether you’re falling in love, getting in engaged or in a relationship that is falling apart. There is love out there—one that lasts and is beyond compare.
