On this Valentine’s day, a common time yet an uncommon emphasis.

We need more romance songs not ending in a scene of fornication.

I only wish I could help ghostwrite some.

Sadly, my music gene decided to never express itself.

Never, in the Hebrew sense, for I trust in the age to come, voices will ring and mine will be among them.

And on that day, perhaps my celebration of love will be fuller, not just limited to words.

You know, traveling with two married couples as part of Songs of Ascent, I thought I would be uncomfortable or awkward being the fifth wheel. However, this has not been the case. I watch cute idiosyncrasies of their romantic story, I watch the way they smile in pride, I watch the familiarity and peace, I watch and I rejoice. My heart is made glad, I am overwhelmed with excitement to see true love, the kind Corinthians 13 describes, in action. And yes, perhaps it is unfortunate to have no one to share a meal with when we hit up a restaurant, but oh how fortunate it is to dwell in the sacredness of matrimony.

So many people rag on Valentine’s day. I see no honor in that.

It is an easy target, a large center with a soft underbelly.

May be we should seek to rejoice and celebrate love, to hold it up in awe and reverence.

Solomon wrote a song about it and God liked it enough to canonize it. Let us celebrate those who have done it right, those who are seeking to do it right, those whose marriages and romantic stories reflect the Bride and the oh-so-dashing Groom.

In a world full of affairs, adultery, incest, pedophilia, rape, and fornication, we need more celebration of other-centered love.

Yes, it is just another common day, but why not seize it for an uncommon emphasis?