It's Valentine's Day, and it's hard to escape that fact. For the past two weeks or so, news outlets have been filled with stories about V-Day, both pro- and anti. Gift shop window displays are resplendent with red and pink hearts. On my run today, most of the people I passed seemed to be carrying flowers, wine, or other mysterious gifts in bags. Even Google and YouTube are in on the fun, with customized logos.

I have to admit I like it. I get as mushy as anybody when I hear a good love story, or read about a married couple still in love after decades. My disinterested cynicism has dissolved into, perhaps not full-fledged romanticism, but at least a tender-hearted delight in true love. Much as I hate the commercial aspects of the holiday, a day to celebrate all that's good about the love between a man and a woman seems positive.

However, as a single with no one to celebrate, it's not hard to feel left out. My singleness doesn't bother me, nor does it make me sad on Valentine's Day. I'm happy for those who have something to celebrate, and if that's me one day, I'll enjoy it then.

It did get me thinking, though, about the nature of love.

The definition of "love" that Valentine's Day celebrates is the kind that most people in the western world think of when they hear the word "love". The sparks and butterflies, swept off your feet, sexual attraction, obsessive, fairy-tale love between a man and a woman.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's God-created, and it's good.

But to me, it's a bit sad that for most people in the world, this kind of "love" is not just the only, but the highest kind of love. In the face of a 50% divorce rate, short-term relationships, casual sex, "friends with benefits", cheating, lack of commitment, and the thousand and one other heartbreaks that can come with "romantic love", this seems risky at best, dangerously deluded at worst. And if "love" was limited only to people in relationships, it would leave singles, the divorced, and the widowed in a pretty desperate place.

That's why I'm thankful that as a Christian, I know the source of true Love.

"God is love." The apostle John tells us this in 1 John 4:8. In fact, in the first part of that verse he says, "Whoever does not love does not know God."

The mark of a Christian, and of Christianity, true and Spirit-filled, is love.

God is love.

Those who know God, love.

I could go on and on quoting Scripture verses. This thread is woven throughout the whole New Testament. Jesus, when asked what to do to inherit eternal life, replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27)

It's pretty simple. God is love. He has first loved us. We love others. By the love God has given us, and its extension to others, we know that we belong to him.

God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us....God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:4,8)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. (1 John 4:18-19)

It's pretty simple.

It's pretty great.

His love is perfect, unconditional, never-ending, unlimited. It makes those who know it dance and shout and feel secure.

Real Christianity, not religious bunk, is a love-fest: God to us and us to God and us to others and others to us and out to the world that doesn't know him.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. And for those of you who know this love of God, happy every day of the year. All 365 can be celebrations of perfect love.