This year for her birthday, Mom wanted a home dinner and a movie. And the movie she picked was Charlie Brown’s Valentine series – a special DVD with all three Peanuts Valentine’s episodes. Neither of us had seen these classics, so after dinner, we watched these, in order. And poor Charlie Brown! All he wanted was a Valentine card. In the opening scene he is waiting by an empty mailbox. No cards. Then, at school, while the class is loaded with cards, poor Charlie gets none. He even brought a briefcase to carry home his expected cards – hope springing eternal. But no. None. Zero. And to make matters worse, more than anything, he wanted to meet the Little Red-Headed Girl. Again, no! The story rocks on, and the episodes build up to the grand finale, where Charlie thinks he can impress the Little Red-Headed Girl by kicking the winning field goal for the football team, only to have Lucy move the ball AGAIN. Charlie is blamed for the loss and thinks all is lost – but love finds a way. I won’t spoil the story for you, just to say that the human element is one that we can understand – times of waiting, longing, losing, and winning in the grand scheme of life and love.

The story reminds us of something mysterious about love – true love, that is. Any time we touch true love, ever so slightly, we touch mystery, for true love is of God. The only love that continues is sourced in God, for God is love. If we would love on earth with enduring love, it must remain connected (and often corrected) with divine love, Heaven’s gift.

Here is God’s revelation of love’s source: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:8-12).

The ultimate love that everyone longs for is found right here – and only right here, defined by God. 1. God is love. 2. True love comes from God. 3. To truly love, we must be born of God in Spirit birth. 4. True love is Holy Love – does not excuse sin but sacrifices to remove it. 5. Since God loves us with this Holy, Redeeming Love, so we ought to love others. In so doing, we are completed in His love.

What does this love look like, in human life? The Bible tells us, in the great Love Chapter (1 Cor. 13): “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails… And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Remember, the prince of the power of the air, the enemy of our souls, is a counterfeiter – he cannot create his own currency but must twist and pervert the true currency of God, at the cost of human lives. Be aware!

Our world says things like, “Love is love.” In other words, “Anything that humans desire as love is love.” But in defining love by what humans desire and feel, instead of the objective truth of what God reveals, true love is lost. It is no longer sourced in divine self-giving; it is no longer sourced in HOLY LOVE that sacrifices itself to remove sin. It is a replacement offer, a counterfeit that will pass away like the morning dew, in the heat of the afternoon sun, in light of eternal verity. It is no surprise that when our world rushes headlong into “love is love” illusions, it ends with greater unease, anxiety, disorder, chaos, brokenness, depression, medication, and suicidal direction. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer.” We must hear the Falconer if we would fly in destined order.

Friends, we can only know love in divine love. Return to Love, in the Eternal Son. Seek Him in the Scriptures and be made new in Word and Spirit. Life is before us – life which is Love, Holy Love, and it will never end. Alleluia! This is your Valentine: Happy Valentine’s Day!