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Valentine’s Day didn’t begin with roses in grocery store coolers, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, or cards covered in glitter and foil. It began with a story we barely understand.

St. Valentine’s history is blurry and wrapped in legend. He may have been an early Christian priest—or possibly a bishop—who quietly helped people be married at a time when being Christian could cost you your life. The details are so uncertain that, years later, the Catholic church even removed his day from the official calendar. And yet, somehow, the story of Valentine—and the day itself—never disappeared.

Centuries later, a poet helped shape what this day would become. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote that February 14 was the day the birds come together to choose their mates. It is such a gentle image—love finding its way in the middle of an ordinary, complicated world. Birds choosing one another. Life continuing. Hope quietly taking root.

But long before St. Valentine and long before Chaucer, the church had already been learning how to talk about love through Scripture. One of the most treasured books for Christian spirituality has been the Song of Solomon—also called the Song of Songs. It is a bold and beautiful love poem, full of longing, tenderness, and joy. Over time, the church came to read that poem as a picture of the love between God and God’s people.

Not because God’s love is romantic in the human sense—but because the closeness, delight, vulnerability, and devotion found in human love can help us understand something true about God’s heart.

God’s love is not distant.  It is personal.  It is tender.  It is strong.

And here is where I want to be honest.  As a single person, Valentine’s Day can still feel a little complicated.  So much of this day is built around couples and dates and romantic expectations. Even when we are genuinely happy for others, it can quietly create the feeling that this celebration belongs to someone else—and that we are standing just outside the circle.  I feel that sometimes, too.

But the deeper meaning of Valentine’s Day is not about being paired off. It is not about whether someone chose you for dinner reservations or flowers or a card.

The deeper truth is about the kind of love God keeps offering—again and again.  A love that chooses us before we choose anything else.  A love that stays when life is messy.  A love that shows up in friendship, in family, in laughter, in grief, in simple acts of care, and in people who walk beside us through ordinary days.  God’s love is not limited to one kind of relationship.  Your life is not on hold because you are single.  You are not waiting to become worthy of deep love.  You are not forgotten.  You are already chosen.

So this Valentine’s Day, whether you are celebrating with a partner, with a spouse, with friends, with family, or quietly on your own, may you remember this simple and steady truth:

You are not left out of love.  See you Sunday!

Peace, Pastor Tracy