One of my favorite days of the year is here. Valentine’s Day! Now, most may not think of it as a particular day to look forward to, much less celebrate, but I do. For on that day, I think about the expressions of affection that are given, delivered, or spoken and the delight they will bring. Flowers and cards from someone who cares—especially the crunchy sweetheart candies tucked inside an envelope delivered by a child—brings smiles to the toughest of hearts. To know you are thought of, appreciated, cherished, even loved, there is hardly anything more delicious in life.
But for many the day is only a reminder of aloneness. Whether it’s in the confines of not yet finding the one meant for you, or the loss of a relationship—no matter the cause—being without, is an ache that no one wants to live with.
And so, the search begins. Hoping to fill that void in our heart, as the lyric by Johnny Lee says, we go “lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, lookin’ for love in too many faces….” And sometimes when we don’t find fulfillment there, we rush headlong into the pursuit of purpose, success, and applause. Anything that makes us feel like we matter.
To Someone.
Somehow.
Somewhere.
Paying the price, we give ourselves to this or that until there is hardly anything left of who we are. Losing focus of what counts, we are swept away by the tidal wave of what really is an illusion, forgetting about the certainty of that which we cannot see—when what we are chasing has been within our grasp all along.
Amy Grant with Brown Bannister in the song, “Fairytale,” says it perfectly.
“…There’s a world out there that human eyes can never see,
But it’s just within the reach of the heart
Two Princes wage the battle for eternity,
But the Victor has been known from the start
Now I can see
The truth can seem so much like fantasy
But make believe was never as real to me
I know this time the story’s true
I was just like Sleeping Beauty in a Netherland
I was dying under a spell
But then a Prince who comes from a foreverland
Awakened me from my fairytale.”
This world is only a dim reflection of the one to come. “For we see in a mirror dimly….” (1Corinthians 13:12)
God’s love can seem like a dream that’s too good to be true, but it’s not. For in His Son, the forever Prince, He not only opens the door to the life we are looking for now on earth, but also the one to come when we enter eternity. The picture of the hereafter that Gandalf paints for Pippin in The Return of the King, is to the Christian, one of incredible beauty.
If you don’t know Jesus, He promises, “If you seek Me with all of your heart, you will find Me.” (Jeremiah 29:13) And the indescribable peace that He gives, will follow all the rest of life. The Christian and the non-Christian alike face the good and the bad, but the believer has the assurance that no matter what comes, the Lord and His love will never leave or forsake him. (Hebrews 13:5)
Ever.
Jesus is the lover of our lives, the lover of our souls.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Kimberly
