This Valentine's Day we have little opportunity for romantic dinners for two in candlelit restaurants, but lots of opportunity for love.

We can love our neighbours in acts of kindness or service. It may not be romantic to fix a puncture for them or drop over a lasagna, but it is love. 

Valentine's Day is also Racial Justice Sunday this year. A day to reflect on white privilege, and on the journey towards racial justice which is too long and too slow. An appropriate day to take action in solidarity and sacrifice because justice is simply love in action. One loving action might be to start supporting a black-owned business which in turn is more likely to recruit staff from the black community. This link might provide inspiration. 

Valentine's Day is in half term so loving our children might look like letting them lie in, or simply not asking them if the online school work is going OK. For children, loving parents might mean asking them to come for a walk, rather than the other way around, just this once!

Loving neighbours further away might include making a one-off donation to a charity. Here are two I am particularly concerned by at the moment.  Firstly, Young Minds as the anniversary comes around of the death of a brilliant boy we knew and loved called Harry Miller. And in this cold weather GlassDoor who serve homeless Londoners, some of them right here in Battersea.

Roses and chocolates have their place and romance is glorious! And if you have a partner, remember to tell them how much you love them. Hold them and let them love you back. 

But love is deeper, wider, stronger, tougher, older, bolder, surer and more interesting than just romance. Love is what brought creation into being. Love is what brought God to us in Jesus. Love is what took Jesus to the cross and love is what raised Him up and out of that loveless tomb. Even if romance is on pause, love is constantly at work. 

Let love breathe in us this Valentine's Day with acts of random and spontaneous or planned and prepared kindness and justice. For those who love, see God.

"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 and sisters." 1 John 3:16