Proverbs 5:15-19 — Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

O.K., I know Valentine’s Day was on Saturday. I didn’t miss it, I promise — but my eye was caught by this lovely passage in Proverbs today, and I thought I should write a belated Valentines devotion.
The thing is, all the cards, candy and roses fluttering around the modern Valentines Day have alienated some Christians, and somehow created the impression that God isn’t in favor of romantic love. Nothing could be further from the truth!
It’s not just in this passage that the Bible hints at the sweetness of romantic love between husband and wife. The whole of the Beautiful book known as the Song of Solomon can be taken, at it face value, to sing of the love between a betrothed couple. The book of Hosea tells of the devotion of Hosea to his faithless wife Gomer.
There’s more to the biblical romances than just what lies on the surface. They tell of the pursuit by God of His faithless lover, Israel.
In the New Testament there’s another Divine romance. It’s the romance between Christ and His bride, the church:

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. (Ephesians 5:25-28)

I think there’s another romance hidden in the Bible. It’s the romantic pursuit by the Holy Spirit. The Amplified Bible has a translation of James 4:5 that says “Or do you suppose that the Scripture is speaking to no purpose that says, The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us and He yearns for the Spirit to be welcome with a jealous love?”
Have I made my point? Father, Son and Holy Spirit … All great romantics. So be like Myra and me … Love one another!