A Prayer for Sweethearts

Because it's Valentine's Day, after all

God of Love,

Today is a day all about love (according to Hallmark, anyway). The person or people we love. Our partner. Our friends. Our children. Our animals.

We may shower them with flowers and candy and take an extra minute to say “I love you.” I hope that we do.

Because the greeting cards are not where the day begins and ends.

It is worth taking a day to recognize all of the ways that love shows up in life: romantic love, companionship love, family love, friendship love…they are all tiny glimmers of your love.

We may be disappointed that love does not look the way that we hoped it might: we are missing some love, or the love that was once hot and exciting is now stable and boring. We do not get butterflies anymore when we look at our partner. Our heart aches because some of the people we love are gone. That relationship we keep looking for has not materialized yet.

But, if we look, we will always find expressions of love.

May we look beyond the red roses and chocolate boxes and be calle…