I write today for my single friends. ..those who have loved and lost due to death of a spouse, or the ravages of divorce, or those who are holding out for the perfect partner. Today is the day our culture has decided to celebrate love. More specifically, romantic love…which is elevated to the status of perfection for this 24 hours each year. I have a message for you. This human love is NOT the standard by which you are measured. You are not forgotten. You are not alone. It may feel that way on long cold nights. It may feel as if your heart will burst with longing for someone to share your life with. On this day, you may feel that no one could possibly understand the ache or fill the void.
I SEE a parched heart. It is cracked like land in a drought. It is thirsty, but there is no water to be found, so it is shriveled with deep grooves and jagged fissures. Above the heart is an open book, with words that are literally jumping off the page. They hurl themselves over the edge of the binding and tumble down. As they spill, the straight sharp letters transform and elongate. They take on a liquid like appearance until, by the time they reach the heart, they are one smooth stream of oil. They pour over and into the parched heart, anointing it, soothing it, healing it. Here are the words:
I will never leave or forsake you. I love you with an everlasting love. My banner over you is love. My love is better than wine. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed. You are the apple of my eye…
On and on they go. Tumbling, pouring out, and into. There is an unending stream of them. A love letter to the parched and thirsty heart. It is a balm which cannot be found in even the best of human love. Do not shrink back from it. Run to into his arms. Let him wash over you in his love. Romantic love is a wonderful thing to experience. You know this. It is to be celebrated. And grieved. Yet, it is not the only kind of love. There is something higher, that heals the wounds you carry. Today is a day to open your thirsty heart like a child in the rain turns his/her head up and opens wide to receive the rain. Receive the words from the one who is the lover of your soul. He is singing over you…today…now…this minute, listen to his words.