The next day and a half, panic will grip the hearts of many: will the expressions of love we offer be acceptable to the ones we give our hearts to? Yes, Valentine's Day is Tuesday, the festival of flowers and chocolate and cards. It is a day of declaring love and recommitting to our relational promises. It is a day of judgment.
Let me share this wisdom: the relationship continued or broken on the strength of what is or isn't offered on Valentine's Day is not in good health. That's a relationship that is living in constant testing, multiplying conditions of what each person must do and meet to keep it going.
Loving perfectly may be outside our human capacity, but there is a vast difference between loving well and manipulating people with tests that are called proof of love. How will you care for and grow in steadfast love in your existing relationships?
Steadfast love shows itself every day, in thousands and millions of ways, from refraining from berating one's partner in life to a kind touch in passing. Steadfast love calls us back to forgiveness, invites us daily into generosity, and keeps opening our hearts when we would really be far more comfortable closed and afraid. Steadfast love is most evident when we are most challenged, least feeling able to be loving, but we stay the course and keeping loving anyway -- that's why we call it "steadfast" and not "fleeting".
Steadfast love belongs as a spiritual practice and human possibility to all of us. Steadfast love is not limited to our partners, our families, or our friends. The Bible teaches in fact that the surest proof of our capacity for steadfast love and way to grow it is how we welcome and care for strangers and for our neighbors (only a handful of exampes: Gen. 18:1-5, Deut. 10:19, Leviticus 19:34, Book of Ruth, Matt. 25:35, Hebrews 13:2.)
This Valentine's Day - and every day - how will you and those you already love be caring for strangers and attending to the dreams and cares of your neighbors?
