Okay, so Valentine’s Day has come and gone. And to be fair, I’m sure not everyone had a particularly “happy” day on Monday, maybe because they are unwillingly single, because they see it as just another day, or they bear wounds of romance that may still be sore. For others, Valentine’s Day was a reminder of the people in their life for whom they hold deep love and care. Whatever side of the fence we found ourselves on this week, love is hard. It is our highest ideal, our deepest desire and our most difficult lesson.

Love can be wonderful. For both those of us who have love and those of us who seek it, it is our motivation to go on. And living out love creates memories in us that confirm our lives have meaning. It can make the most dreadful routine worthwhile. It can even help us grow up and mature in godliness.

But with love comes the possibility of pain. We love people and we lose them. They leave indelible marks of thankfulness and emptiness.

And in love we make mistakes. We bare our souls way too soon, or to the wrong people, and we are left less than whole and in need of healing.

Ironically enough, love shows us who we are. In trying to be selfless we realize just how self-centered and selfish we are. But that is the wonder of it all, that every day we have an opportunity to get better at loving both God and each other.