“I was thinking,” he said, after I turned out the light. “Maybe on Sunday we could hop in the car and go use that gift certificate to have lunch. A Valentine’s date.”
“Are you sure?” I said. “You’ve been so tired. I think maybe you need a more restful day at home. And I don’t need Valentine’s Day to know you love me.”
“Really?” he said. An exhale of disbelief came from his side of the bed.
“You make me feel loved and cared for every day,” I said. “I’ve never needed a February 15th.”
I thought of all the regular days – the Tuesdays and the Thursday nights and the Saturday trips to the dump. Days when he had looked at me, with no roses or chocolates in hand, and said, “Do you know that I love you today?”
Special days when my teeth weren’t brushed but he still managed to make me feel lovely.
He couldn’t see my smile in the dark.
The smile of a woman who is cared for.
Now it is 2:30 a.m., and I’m awake as usual for a little while with insomnia. I’m here in the wee hours of the morning to tell you that you are a person who is loved and cherished.
You have a reason to smile in the dark.
“I have loved you,” Jesus says. (John 13:34, NIV)
In English it’s called the present perfect tense, to say one has done something. It describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue in the future.
A Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday kind of love.
You don’t need February 14th to be one of the satisfied ones. You don’t need the perfect card or the perfect man wearing cologne and bearing flowers. No candlelight over an expensive meal.
You have Jesus.
Do you know that Jesus loves you today?
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
