But the greatest of these is Love.

The two people pictured here don’t represent, for most of us, the classic picture of love and romance.  They aren’t the “beautiful people” we have come to associate with tabloid and magazine covers depicting the latest celebrity romance or breakup.  They are two ordinary people who taught me an extraordinary lesson about real love.  They are my maternal grandparents, John and Willie Ridgway, or Papaw and Nanner to me.

Their 66 year marriage was not what I would call an epic romance.  It was a great love story.  In their 66 years together they weathered the Great Depression, the tragic and sudden death of a 20 year old daughter leaving behind a 4 month old daughter of her own for them to help raise, a cross country relocation, multiple muggings after moving to California, and the other sundry challenges and hardships you might imagine that any two people who lived together for 66 years would have to encounter.

I never saw my grandfather give my grandmother roses or candy or jewelry on Valentine’s Day.  I never knew of him giving her anything on Valentine’s Day, except a card.  I can’t say that she wouldn’t have appreciated it if he had, but she didn’t evaluate his love for her, or change her love for him, based on what he did or didn’t do on any given day.  He made a promise to her and she to him, when they said their wedding vows, and they believed that, in addition to the promise that they made to each other, they had made a promise to God that included “til death do us part”.

They were not perfect people with a perfect or even near perfect relationship. They were two flawed individuals who, like all of us, were capable of being selfish.  But they knew one thing that they lived everyday and spoke of often to their children and grandchildren: “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…..It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails….And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”*

John and Willie Ridgway, my Papaw and Nanner, loved each other not because of what each other did or said.  They loved because they knew love is not just a feeling, it is a verb, an action verb.  They knew love was a promise that they made and kept, no matter what the other person did or didn’t do. And thus they had a great love story.  They served as an example of what real love is for 66 years.  They were, and even in their absence now, still are, to me, examples of true love.

So today, as you celebrate Valentine’s Day if your Valentine blesses you with some beautiful token of his or her love, make sure you show appreciation for the gift whatever it is.  But, if your Valentine does not come through with flowers, or candy, or jewelry, or something our culture would tell you are the necessary signs of ” real love”, keep on loving him or her anyway.  Love because you have made that choice to love.  If you do, you, like John and Willie, may one day be the example in someone else’s illustration of what “real love” looks like.  You will certainly be a blessing to your family and maybe even to people you will never meet.

* The Bible  I Corinthians 13:4,5,7,8,13