Jesus - Our Perfect Valentine

Psalm 63:3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.



Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

"The week" is finally here.  It is the week of teddy bears, chocolates and roses.  It is the week when our e-mail,Twitter and Facebook accounts collectively join forces and launch a countdown to "the day."  It is the week when one can watch the shelves on the card aisle become noticeably bare as people feel the overwhelming pressures to find "the perfect cards."  In a recent conversation with a nice gentleman on the card aisle, he became very quiet.  That doesn't happen very often when people are talking with Momma Vaughan!!  Suddenly he turned to me and said, "Can I just be honest?  I hate this process.  What if I just give her $100?"  If I am honest with all of you, Momma Vaughan has already celebrated Valentine's Day.  I found the pink covered Reese's peanut butter hearts on aisle 5 of Target before all of you.  Because they were on sale, I bought enough bags for me to make sure they tasted ok before I offered them to my family.  You're welcome for saving your calories and your waistlines! 

In case you are not sure of the proper "gift giving etiquette" for Valentine's Day, your email inbox will remind you how important it is that you not forget your pets.  PetSmart has everything on sale to encourage all of us to purchase special treats for our furry friends before Wednesday as well.  Rocky, our dog, has already celebrated Valentine's Day, too.  I wanted to beat the crowd and bought him some delicious new apple-flavored breath-buster bites to help him have perfect breath ahead of the "perfect day."  His breath is amazing; however, we learned that these bites give him gas.  We learned this fun fact on a 2-hr. car ride home yesterday.  I guess we should just call it "apple gas."  Isn't that greatness?

Whether you are a single mom, a full-time working mom or an anxiety-ridden mom who just had an argument with her anxiety-free husband, all we really want to do is pull the covers over our heads.  Underneath the safety of our covers, we can just wait for the "love fest" of this week to parade on by.  Let's just make sure we all have some pink Reese's peanut butter hearts to sustain us while we wait.

This past weekend, we visited our lakehouse.  When I walked outside Saturday morning, a deep fog had settled over the lake.  It was impossible to see where the shore ended and the lake began.  The view reminded me of all the times in my own life when I have held on tightly to that which is right before me, uncertain of the road ahead.  As I walked, a melodious sound interrupted the silence of the morning.  High above the immediate fog was a beautiful red cardinal who was singing as loud as he possibly could.  No matter where you traveled down our long, foggy road, the sweet melody of this cardinal was completely inescapable.  It was as if, as the cardinal continued to sing, nothing else in the world mattered but the beauty of God's creation.  Amidst the grey skies, God was quieting me with His love and rejoicing over all of creation with His singing.  The song of a small red bird was an overwhelming symbol of God's peace.  As a blanket of darkness covered the earth, the red cardinal's song seemed more glorious than all the red boxes of chocolates, all the red balloons and all the red envelopes bulging out of the crowded aisle of my local grocery store.  You have a perfect Valentine.  His name is Jesus.  May He love you through this week and all the weeks ahead.