King of Hearts

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. Today is traditionally the day when love is magnified, seduced and celebrated, we think about who we love and why we love them, who loves us and why they do. We show our affection for those we love and are just plain lovely. Restaurants are crowded (I know, because I went to Olive Garden), flowers are purchased and given by the gazillions (I know that, too, because I received a dozen), chocolates are given and eaten, and all of those other things that happen on this lovely day of the year--well, they just do.

Even though I may not be 'in love,' I love Valentines Day. OK, I'd love it even more if I were in love, but let's not even go there.  Anyway, I am someone's object of affection. He, in fact, is crazy in love with me.  Always was and always has been. He loved me even before I existed, even before I was a speck in my mother's womb, before my parents' had ever even thought of me, and He always will.  He can live anywhere in the universe, and yet He chooses my heart. I obviously did not earn this love because I couldn't.  It's not because of anything that I could have, would have or should have done.  No.  It's merely because He does.  He chooses to.  He always has and always will. If I were the only person on this earth, He still would have died just for me.  He knows me even better than I know myself and has reached His verdict: He still loves me.

Just when I think, wow, I really want to be in love with that kind of man--one who loves me unconditionally, the one who always has my back, the one who wants to watch movies and take walks together, the Lord speaks to me and whispers, "You already are." When I reminisce about my past loves and ponder the lessons learned (and not learned), I hear the Lord say, "I will never be your past love because I will never leave you."   When I think of Valentines Day  and all of its earthly implications, I remember, just Who really loves me and just Who I really love and remember that He is the beginning and the end of all Valentines Days. And I smile.

Whether you are madly in love with your husband, you wife, your significant other, or someone else, may you always remember to take time for your First Love--He who created you and is crazy, madly, and undeniably in love with you. And may you smile.....  I heart you all.