Valentine Favorites

candy

I have to admit, while I'm not usually a sugary-sweet candy fan, I love conversation hearts. Except the orange ones.

(And dark chocolate truffles, of course. Mmm.)

les fleurs

I just adore the surprise of these gorgeous white and pink blooms my sweet Brent just sent me.  They pair my favorite hydrangea with the sweetest smelling lilies and roses, along with some beautiful spring-heralding tulips and snapdragons.

verses

May I share a sonnet from one of my favorite poets?  

Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,

     I love, as you would have me, God the most;

     Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,

Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look

Unready to forego what I forsook;

     This say I, having counted up the cost,

     This, tho' I be the feeblest of God's host,

The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.

Yet while I love my God the most, I deem

     That I can never love you overmuch;

          I love Him more, so let me love you too;

     Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such

I cannot love you if I love not Him,

          I cannot love Him if I love not you.

~Christina Rossetti

Sonnet 6 from Monna Innominata: A Sonnet of Sonnets

Everytime I read that, which I first discovered and loved in college, I am reminded of this passage of scripture from I John 4.

"We love because He first loved us." vs. 19

the perfect Valentine

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I John 4:9-10


A perfect Valentine, penned so long ago, for all hearts who need to know Love.