A celebration of love. Delightful, right? Well, yes. But I’ve been thinking today about those who are at present without a “significant other.” If we confine our concept of love to romantic love only, aren’t a lot of those people likely to feel less like celebrating and more like moping?

But if we expand our sense of love to a more inclusive one, it changes everything. Romantic love is anything but a joy unless it’s returned. We feel a need to get it from a certain person. But what if we decide to celebrate instead the kind of love we can give instead of get–a love that flows out freely to others just because they’re a part of the family of man? We can choose at any time to lavish such love on someone who may be thirsting for it. “If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (I John 4:12) Now that is something worth celebrating!