Last Valentine's Day, I traded e-mail with a friend who is approaching 30 and has no serious love relationship in sight. He's talented, fun, handsome, and a committed Christian. But so far, everything on his romantic horizon has turned out to be a mirage.

Several months earlier, he had been very enthusiastic about a young woman with whom he was corresponding. Two weeks before they were to meet for the first time, she was killed by a drunk driver. My friend made the trip to meet her family, experience their pain, and deal with his own sense of loss.

Today, many people will feel the absence of love as keenly as others celebrate its presence. In a world where love means so much, is there a word from the Lord for everyone, with or without a sweetheart?

First Corinthians 13 focuses not on being loved by another person, but on having love. This love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (v.7). How is this possible? It's God's love that "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5).

Today and tomorrow, far beyond the cards and flowers, from God's heart to ours, there is love!  — David C. McCasland