Scripture sets the foundation for Valentine's Day in the Garden of Eden. It tells us that God created man in his own image in that garden setting, and created us male and female.

Scripture states that you bear the image of God. This means that you are altogether lovely, high and lifted up; you have great dignity, you are admirable; you have great purpose and value. Everyone else needs you and desires that you be part of their lives.

Scripture goes into some more detail on our creation, and we learn that the man, the Adam, was first created alone. While Adam was naming the animals and the birds, God saw that it was not good for man to be alone and chose to make a suitable helper for him.

God put Adam into a deep sleep and removed a rib from which God fashioned woman. He turned that rib into something beautiful, something easy to love and named her Eve. God took the rib, a part of man close to his heart, a part that protects the heart and is part of the embrace we give each other. That is why a wife or sweetheart is the darling of a man's heart and feels so at home in that embrace.

Think about this if you are a man: Your wife or sweetheart came out of you. Scripture does not say that God added things to your rib to make woman; no, everything that is in your wife was first in you.

Women, think, as well: Everything you are, used to be in man. We cannot escape these facts, we belong to each other, we need each other, we were and yet can be one flesh, and when we learn to appreciate and value this fact, we gain immeasurably.

Scripture continues that we, as one flesh, are to be fruitful and to increase in number. Being fruitful means starting, as God did, with nothing and together building a house that will stand when the storms of life arise. That house includes family, a home, our work and play, a sphere of friends, our influence, our presence and more.

Scripture tells us that children are desirable and that God will provide for them. Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve stood before God without shame. They had nothing to hide.

You can do the same. When we do, his presence will permeate and penetrate every facet of our lives; it will provide the state of affairs God wants for each of us, a life where everything flourishes, is wholesome and delightful.

God made us to enjoy him, all of creation and each other. When we enjoy these things, we bring God glory, and Valentine's Day fills the air and our hearts. Joy is the emotion of union.

H. Murray Hohns of Makiki is an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship.