Valentine’s day. Fresh grief washes over me. I grieve for my loss – the loss of a beloved daughter whose very life reflected the depth of my love for Steve, my valentine. I grieve for Jacob’s loss – on Valentine’s Day in 1998 Jacob proposed to Becky at a restaurant in our town. Becky spoke often about how sweet it was to have Jacob on one knee proposing in the restaurant as other diners looked on teary-eyed. And I grieve for the daughters she loved so deeply and who love her so much. This first and defining experience of love in their lives has been ripped away from them at a tender age.

I’ve said several times over the weeks since Becky died, and I will remind myself again, that I would not give up the years of life with Becky even though it would mean not going through this pain now. I know Jacob believes this also. I trust this truth for the girl’s lives too – that the time they had with Becky has made an indelible difference in the way they will love their own husbands and children in the future.

Even though Becky’s physical presence is gone from us, the impact of her love on our lives is in no way lost. Love is eternal, it never fails. Happy Valentine’s Day Becky!

“Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.” Song of Songs 8:7

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13