A Concord Pastor Comments: Thinking about Valentine's Day...

Special days have a way of leaving some folks feeling not so special... Holidays do this when their approach builds expectations of a joy whose arrival can't be guaranteed by a particular date on the calendar. One of those days is around the corner on this coming Sunday: Valentine's Day.

The church's liturgical calendar no longer commemorates St. Valentine and the story of how this day came to be the occasion of love letters, flowers and chocolates is historically unclear but interesting nonetheless.

Valentine's Day may be for lovers but not all loving and lovable people will find cards, roses and sweets at their door. For some this will be one of the happiest days of the year, for others one of the saddest. Any day that puts our hearts in the spotlight will be a day of mixed emotions. Those whose hearts are burdened or broken may look at February 14 as simply a day to be endured.

It's unfortunate that Valentine's Day is so closely, almost entirely associated with romantic love. There are so many kinds of love that people share, love whose source and sustenance is much deeper and greater than an arrow from Cupid's bow. The Valentine industry may boom this week but soon enough the roses will droop and the heart-shaped boxes will be empty. When the trappings of the day are behind us, those who know and share a deeper kind of love will have something that cannot be bought in a store, ordered from a florist or made by Godiva.

Loving and lovable people come to this page all the time, some every day. May all of you see how beautiful you are in the eyes of the Lord, the Lover who offers you his heart and who writes these tender words upon yours:

I have loved you
with an everlasting love
I have called you
and you are mine!