If You're Not Spending the Evening With Your Valentine

Here it is- 6:45pm on Valentine's Day.

If you get to be with your Valentine today, Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope that you're spending the day being loved well by the one you love.  If you happen to find yourself at Red Lobster, please eat a Cheddar Bay Biscuit on my behalf.  Seriously.

But this message isn't really for you.

This message is for us.

Those of us who don't look forward to Valentine's Day.  Those of us who squeeze our eyes shut tight and try to get through the day with as little sorrow as possible.  We, who walk that line, sometimes less-than-successfully, of trying to not seem jaded or bitter or jealous or lonely on this day that makes us feel most jaded or bitter or jealous or lonely.

This message?  It's for me, from my Father.  And if God is your Father too, and you hurt on February 14 too, then this message is for you, too.

If you don't have a Valentine
If you have never known a February 14th with a Valentine and you wonder why
If you can't be with your Valentine today because they have gone where you can't follow
If your own arms are empty and you wish for nothing more than to celebrate this day with your own little ones

I'm sorry for how much harder this day can make that.  I'm sorry with the groaning, weeping, gut-wrenching sorrow of someone who understands each of these places.

Will you let me remind you?  You are not forgotten in the chaotic mess of pink and hearts and red and flowers not for you.

I see you.

Better, far better, God sees you.

He holds our tears in a bottle, yours and mine- not forgotten; never wasted.  Each tear for a purpose, Truth tells us, though Feelings tries to convince us otherwise.  Don't believe Feelings.

Remember with me that Truth is more important than Feelings.  The Truth is that we couldn't be more loved- not if our kitchen tables and office desks were veritable mountains of rose bouquets or if we'd gotten enough chocolates today to send us into a sugar coma to last until the first good spring thaw.  We couldn't be more loved, even if our arms were full of someone to love.

Remember with me that this world is not our Home.

Home is coming, though.

Home will be when our feelings and Truth finally match up.  When we will not only KNOW we are loved, but we will FEEL loved beyond our wildest dreams.  Love so deep and unconditional and full and rich and nourishing and playful and glittering and perfect, that hearts and chocolates and flowers won't stand a chance.  We will forgot the sensation of being lonely.  Can you even imagine!?!?

We will know only the Truth of Love.  And it will be forever.

But in the meantime, you and me?  We're going to fight our way through.  We're going to press into Jesus and know that He will sustain us and that one day all will be well, though today feels anything but.  I am praying you through today.  Will you do the same for me?

And now I leave you not with Happy Valentine's Day, but with a better closing, and this if for all of us who call God Father:

Cling to Truth until we're home, friend.   One day in Heaven.