Cheryl and I left this past Monday to balmy Peoria, IL (we watched a tugboat push several barges through ice on the Illinois River). Though married for over 33 years, for nearly 12 years now we have been taking the time to get away during Valentines week, hiding out somewhere using up Hilton points. Speaking of the subject, Valentines that is, I just read this by Kevin DeYoung:

Marriage Tune Up: Five Books, Five Questions

We spent time yesterday evening answering the 5 questions – what a pleasure to share our answers with each other. But I can’t help to think of those whose hearts are lonely of love either through death or divorce or a very hard marriage (Kevin did point this out, the loneliness of love in singleness). There are no quick and easy answers for the later and definitely even fewer for the former. But God knows how to hold us as his beloved when we are lonely and feeling unloved. Christ was momentarily cut off from the best source of Love so that we could be brought near to the best Love one could know . . . I’m so thankful for this. Because, as the next post below says, “marriage is not meant to fully satisfy.”

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/50-shades-love/

The erotic 50 Shades series still cannot provide what our hearts long for, as the post declares: “When we look for a mortal solution (perhaps I married the wrong person?) we ruin the good gift we have. But when we look to our immortal Lover, the good we have in marriage deepens and becomes better, because it is part of a larger love story.”

This is why I’ll look to my Lord for all that I need in this life. There’s only one Savior for mankind, “the man Christ Jesus.” There’s no other better way to enjoy a good marriage or endure a hard one, or to endure the loneliness of death and divorce and singleness. Through a veil of tears or lingerie, God the Father who sent his Son is the Supreme Source of Love. May this day remind you of the “the great love with which he loved us” (Eph. 2:5).