Love Letters from God

Dear God, please reveal to us your sublime beauty

that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere,

so that we will never again feel frightened.

My divine love, my love, please let us touch your face.

~St. Francis of Assisi

A Valentine’s Eve question for you. C’mon, fess up. Do you keep your old love letters? I have a box in the attic filled with them. Steve and I were separated during our engagement when he was in Connecticut studying for his master’s degree. One of these years, I will steel myself and open the box. I’m not really sure how I will feel when I re-read the words of a giddy young girl and her fiancé. Probably a bit embarrassed by their effusiveness. I do know that the letters are so private that I could never share them with my children, or anyone. They are the very definition of intimacy.

But I will likely remember that feeling (remember that feeling?) The crazy, head-over-heels feeling of new love. When the beloved seems absolutely perfect, when every conversation is magical and every touch is a poem. I cannot reliably tell you the clever repartee my dear husband and I shared this morning (though I can guess it was along the lines of my “Can you make more coffee?” and his “I would if you had remembered to buy it!”), yet I vividly recall what movie Steve and I saw the first night we kissed (The Way We Were). My senses were in sharp focus, and everything I saw, or heard, was touched with beauty.

I had never connected this intense feeling to the Almighty, until I read Love Poems from God. It is a wonderful collection of poetry by 12 writers, of all places and times and faith traditions. From the Persian mystic Rumi to St. Teresa of Avila, the poets beautifully describe the love affair between God and us. In these pages, St. Catherine of Siena writes: I won’t take no for an answer/God began to say to me/when He opened His arms each night/wanting us to dance. And this, from Meister Eckhart: It is a lie--any talk of God/that does not comfort/you.

The God these poets celebrate cares so deeply about us that He never lets us go. He writes us love letters in the stars. The faces of our kids are scribbled with the Divine “I love you.” We just need to learn to recognize His handwriting. And, unlike the closely guarded private love letters between two people, this is a God who yearns for us to share Him with everyone we meet, for the sheer joy of it.

So this Valentine’s Day, when you recall that rush of emotion that is new love, amid the Hallmark cards from your spouse, and the lace-paper covered hearts from the children, look for His love letters to you. I bet you’ll find some. Remember, today and every day, that you are so precious in His sight. You are, indeed, the beloved.