Where was Cupid?

As the Dollarstore aisles filled with pink and red and the lines to get in the Hallmark Store wrapped around the building, I couldn’t help but find my mind drift off to the many kinds of Valentine weekends I’ve experienced in the last 41 years.

On Valentine’s Day, we make an effort to celebrate the loves in our lives, whether it’s our friendships, significant others, spouses, children, our furry friends or just some really good chocolate.

As a child, my Mother packed elaborate Valentine’s lunches for us filled with heart-shaped sandwiches, heart-shaped cheese, heart-shaped napkins, heart-shaped treats. If it could be cut or shaped into a heart and squeezed into a brown paper bag you could guarantee you’d find it there.

Nights were spent at the kitchen table handwriting Valentine’s cards for every one of my BFFs in hopes that I would get just as many BFFs in return.

As a teen and young adult, I watched as single roses were delivered to classrooms and secret admiring gifts of anonymous chocolate made their rounds, always knowing it was unlikely one would land on my desk, always secretly hoping to be someone’s “special”.

My first serious relationship found me freshly engaged on our first Valentine’s day. My feet were barely touching the floor as I floated through finishing up my degree while planning a summertime wedding and savouring my first “sweetheart chocolates”.

In the following years, my focus shifted to creating a special day for my own four little loves. Our Valentine’s days are filled with cookies and sprinkles, Valentine’s napkins for special dinners and loads of giggles.

This Valentine’s Day, the richness of my current stage of life was before me. My husband and I had carved out some time for just the two of us; where we could act like young loves oblivious to the world around us and he slipped some little love gifts throughout my weekend. We created Valentine’s brunch for our littles where they showered us with love notes and we showered them with treats. A few dooryard deliveries and mailbox arrivals from friends and family interrupted our weekend, and I wrapped it all up sitting next to my best friend with treats, conversation and our favourite show. But this hasn’t always been the case.

What I’ve noticed about Valentine’s day is that no matter the phase or stage of life all the celebrating also highlights any longing for love we might have in our lives. Maybe it’s that we don’t have a romantic love relationship or we are living in the aftermath of a failed relationship. Maybe it’s the reality of broken friendships or that we are struggling to make new friendships. Maybe it is an estranged child or the inability to have children.

So, what do we do with all that unrequited love? We turn our hurting hearts to God who IS love. The love of God is more than “real love”, more than an action or an attribute of God, the Bible tells us that God IS love.

If you are hurting or longing God offers himself, his entire self to you.  He invites you to get to know Him through His words in the Bible. He invites you to get to know how he sees you and loves you. He offers his whole perfect self to you. He is the antidote for your feelings of “not enough”. He meets the longing, the unrequited love and offers you His perfect self. You are his “special”.

When we recognize our longing for what it is, an invitation to spend time getting to know true, perfect love, we will find our hearts filling. From there, we are compelled to celebrate his “special” in one another.

John 15:12 … Love each other as I have loved you.