Valentines

Valentine's Day is coming in a couple of weeks. Many people will express their emotions by sending a valentine to the one they are attracted to. This emotional attraction is a beautiful thing in marriage, but when it is not backed by sacrifice, it is not worthy of the name of love. Don't call it love until you are ready to make a commitment of service for forever.

Valentines

Is that mere piece of crimson paper
Supposed to really represent
The heart supplying life within?
That shape engulfed in lace you sent
Is somehow meant to show your love?
What is it that you really meant?

When next year comes, you’ll probably
Have sent one to a different guy;
And when the paper’s ripped in two
A pail can hold the tears you cry—
But don’t you know that if you tore
Your heart in two then you would die?

This paper somehow states your feelings,
To let him know how much you care;
You say you’ve given him your heart,
But what’s this sympathy compared
To every beat of servanthood,
Each moment which your heart has shared?

Don’t call your sweet emotions love
Until you’ve come at last to find
The lifelong service of a heart:
When every beat with life has shined
And love’s defined by what you give
Then you can share a valentine.

(c) 2006 Benjamin Graber