A Divine Valentine

             As I look at Valentine’s Day through the rearview mirror, I am thankful for the beautiful red roses my husband gave me but I’m noticing they are already starting to wilt and the leaves are beginning to curl up. The celebration of our love didn’t take us to a fancy dinner with candlelight.  Instead we traveled an hour to our son’s soccer game Thursday afternoon and drove through a fast food restaurant for dinner afterwards. Appropriately the name of the burger  joint we stopped at was “In and Out.” Valentine’s Day went out as fast as it came in!

            Sometimes, Valentine’s Day is anticlimactic. Maybe you don’t even celebrate it in your marriage. Maybe the love in your marriage is so dead, this holiday comes and goes without a loving word spoken.  Perhaps, you don’t have a spouse or significant other to share a romantic card with.

            The truth is even when we do have a spouse we celebrate this day with, they will disappoint us at one point or another. Sometimes Cupid’s arrows break our hearts rather than pierce us with love. Can you relate? That’s why it’s important to remember there is only one perfect husband or wife: God.

            When you are feeling down about your love life, here are three reasons why God is the perfect spouse:

            #1 God is never too busy for us. God longs to spend time with you and desires that you to get up early in the morning and read His Word. He desires time alone with you in prayer. When you pray, He doesn’t say, “Can I call you back? I’m in a meeting.” He craves connecting with you throughout the day. Hear the words of Psalm 121:5-8:   The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.   The Lord watches over our lives forever. He’s eternally never too busy for us.

            #2  God is content with us. God gave you your personality; He designed you in the womb. This is confirmed in Psalm 139:13-14:   For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. God crafted us exactly how He wanted us to be. If we look exactly how God created us, and God is obviously content with us, then why aren’t we content with ourselves?

            #3 God loves us. Are you getting enough love? We all would like to be loved more than we are now. As far as our spouses are concerned, we’d like to think that our spouses love us enough to die for us, but here’s a flash bulletin:   Jesus already did. In many ways, the entire Bible is a love letter to us. Listen to this beautiful passage from Romans 5:6-8:   You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:   While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us, the ultimate act of love by God, so we can spend eternity with Him. God is love. He created love. He created intimacy.

            And if you didn’t receive flowers on Valentine’s Day, remember God, the ultimate romantic, gives you beautiful flowers most of the year. The next time you drive by a field full of wildflowers, think of them as the Lord’s bouquet to you because he wants to show you how much he loves you.

            Valentine’s Day may not be all its built up to be, but God is our divine Valentine. His love never fails.