Eternal Valentine

Feb 103 min read

February 9, 2025

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I can’t help but consider my own love story. “But Annika, you’re single!” you say. Yes, you’re right. I don’t mean that love story.

I just finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and my goodness! If you haven’t read it yet, you should. It’s about a shepherd boy who goes chasing after treasure in order to fulfil his “personal legend”. Sometimes there are distractions and hinderances and doubts along his journey, but in the end, everything works out.

It got me thinking about my own “personal legend” of sorts. I remember when I was 18, heading off for my freshman year of college, so many people asked me what I was going to do with my life. (What an awful thing to ask, by the way!) I would always answer something like, “I don’t know, but I know I want to live abroad for at least a year or two; I want to have a job I like, maybe I’ll open a coffee shop or do ministry; I probably won’t get married till I’m thirty or so, because I’ll be too busy having an adventure before then and I don’t know where I want to live so I don’t want to be tied down.” But then college happened, and life happened, and comparison happened, and all of the sudden I wanted to graduate and immediately get married and start a career and find a good place to settle down.

Thank God, none of that happened. I didn’t get to give up on my “personal legend” so easily.

When I look back on the past few years, I see all the answered prayers that have led me to where I am today. I didn’t get married after graduating college, but I did open a coffee shop for a church. I didn’t find a career right of the bat, but I did finally find something I’m passionate about and began chasing after it. I didn’t find a place to settle down, but I’ve lived in some of the coolest places in the world, and I’ve met the most amazing people in doing so. I’m not living the life I pictured I’d live a couple years ago, but I am living out my childhood dreams. I’m living in Italy! I have great friends! I love what I’m learning about in school! I’m a big star at the local karaoke bar! What more could a girl want?

At this point, many of my friends are married and having babies, and when I look back, that’s what they’ve always wanted! They are living out their dreams too! But while I do hope to fall in love and settle down someday, I am in no rush to move past this phase of my life. I have certainly lacked romantic love for the past few years, but I’ve found something better. I’ve found a deeper love for learning, for life, for myself, for others, and for God. I’ve also learned how to better accept love from God, from others, and from myself.

I’m so grateful to have an Eternal Valentine, a God whose “steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136). A God who gives you the desires of your heart, and who makes straight your path, and who helps carry your burdens, and who goes before and behind and beside you, and who lifts you up, and who cares deeply about you. Life is sweet when you know you’re loved. And when you know you’re loved, it’s a whole lot easier to pour love onto others.

Whether Valentine’s Day is a fun day or a hard day or a romantic day or a girl’s day or just a Friday, I hope it’s a day full of love. YOU are loved.