My Valentine's Day

By: John Ottley     

Valentine’s Day was earlier this week.  I was up early for a meeting.  Kathleen had the coffee ready so I just had to flick the switch.  My travel mug stood guard over a red envelope leaning against the coffee maker.  I opened it in the quiet kitchen and read the funny card about an old couple forgetting stuff.  Her familiar writing in blue ink followed by the familiar series of X’s and O’s.  I found a red envelope and blank white card in the plastic bin she keeps full of cards for special occasions (and other emergencies like Valentine’s Day).  I made a simple line drawing of a steam-heart wafting out of a coffee cup with a “K” on it.  I copied a little poem by Judith Viorst on the card:

Still married after all these years? No mystery.We are each other’s habit.And each other’s history.

I listened to the radio while I drove to the meeting.  A comedian, whose father recently died, told how his parents met.  I was touched and inspired so later I sent my kids an email called “How I Met Your Mother”…

I saw your mother for the first time in January of 1975.  We were together in a large college classroom.  The class was over and the room had thinned out.   I was in the back on the left and there was a very cute blonde over in the middle with her winter coat draped over the back of her chair.  (Remember the old Beatles’ song, "I Saw Her Standin’ There"?  Well my heart went "Boom" when I crossed that room...)   She had a bright orange blouse.  Her skirt and vest were white with a large floral pattern.  And that blonde hair.  And those legs... 

I brought Kathleen red roses and dark chocolate when I got home.  We ate a shrimp dish she made while we watched “Downton Abbey.”  During the show, the old Dowager Countess, Cousin Violet, tries to talk some sense into this guy, Matthew, who isn’t marrying the girl we want him to.  Here’s what she said:

“Marriage is a long business.  There’s no getting out of it for our kind of people.”  I went back so we could hear her speech again.  It was a Happy Valentine’s day.

This morning I read about Servant Love in my High Quest book.  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.   The part about “not insisting on its own way” and not being “irritable” was convicting but the part about love “bearing everything” and “never ending” was encouraging.  It reminded me of what Cousin Violet said about marriage being “a long business.”   It reminded me of the grace of God in our marriage.

How was your Valentine’s Day?  I hope it was a day of genuine celebration of God’s grace among those you love most.  If not, give us a call here at Grace Evan.