The whole craze for Valentine and having a Valentine got me thinking to myself and asking, "Infact just how did Valentine begin in the first place?" A little research revealed that although there are many stories behind Valentine, the most popular two are this:
1. There was actually someone known as Saint Valentine. During his lifetime, he performed secret weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to some Christians who were being persecuted. He was imprisoned because of this and it is said that during his time in prison, he healed the jailers daughter of her blindness. The story also goes that there was a romantic love relationship between them before he was killed. Legend states that he ended his farewell letter to her with these words, "From your Valentine"; which is often used today during the celebration.
2. The second story states that the ancient Romans celebrated a feast named Lupercalia supposedly on February 15 held in honor of a goddess. During this festival, young men randomly chose the name of a young girl to escort for the celebration. With Christianity adopting the holiday, it was the moved to February 14.
However, one of the earliest and most common symbols of Valentines day is Cupid, the Roman god of love which is represented by the picture of a young boy with a bow and arrow. It is also common to see the usual one we know, that is the picture of a heart pierced through with an arrow.
Enough of history. Let us look critically. Is Valentines day worth celebrating alongside the rest of the world?
Jesus gave us the great commandment which is to love one one another. John 15:12-13a says "This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the best way to love." (MSG)
People pay so much attention to planning the way they will celebrate their Valentine on February 14 every year. So much money is spent. In fact, statistics show that almost half of the population in UK spend about 1.3 billion pounds yearly on gifts and flowers for Valentine! If this is so, my question is, if so much attention is given to celebrating love on valentine's day, what happens to February 15 and 16 and the other days to follow? Is showing love to be restricted to just one day?
I also wonder what's so bad if I wake up on a random day and send a gift to my friend to show my love? Must it be on February 14? Can love be measured with gifts and sex? What happens when they are no more available? I also wonder why Valentine is is mostly directed to showing love to the opposite gender? It baffles me why today's valentine celebration does not end at giving gifts and flowers but extends to immoral acts? Today, in bid to express their so called "true love" to their partners, unmarried couples have sex and do lots of disgusting things. Boys who do not fear God take advantage of girls who do not know their identity and disvirgin them with claims that they are being shown true love. The questions are endless.
How do you see love? It is obvious that the way you look at love depends on who you are and how you see yourself. For example, if you look at love as being struck in the heart with an arrow, you may just be implying that you intend to have your heart pierced or broken. Or, if you see love as exchanging gifts and having sex, you most probably will get involved in such activities. But, if you look at love differently, as an everyday act which Christ commanded you to do, February 14 will not restrict your life of showing love.
Humans have been created to show and want to be shown love. However, this great vacuum cannot be filled by celebrating Valentines day. Love cannot be found in Saint Valentine. True love can only be found in the person of Jesus who is love Himself, who through His sacrificial death on the cross, brought redemption to mankind. This is the GrEATeST act of love ever performed in history.
The love of God can only be produced by the Spirit of God. Any other love other than this is not of God. Remember, it is only those that are led by the Spirit of God that are His children.
If the history of Valentine dates back to the celebration of the god/goddess of love, why would I want to be part of it in the first place? That is if I am truly a child of God and I truly appreciate His love for me. Jesus' love for mankind did not end at Calvary's tree. He did not think, "I will show them love today and that will be all." No!!! In fact, His love began at creation, and is still very much available to us every day! Jesus' love for us was sacrificial, unconditional, never asking for things in return. It was full and free. Most of the type of love celebrated today is conditional, with the guy buying the girl stuff and at the end asking for sex in return. Yes, this is the very usual case everywhere around the world. That is not true love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a says, "Love never gives up. Love cares more than for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love does not strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't keep score of the sins of others,doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps on going to the end. Love never dies." (MSG)
Love never dies!!! Our love lifestyle should be an every day thing. This can only emanate from a heart that has truly experienced and received Christ's love.
Allow Christ to love you, so you can in turn love others everyday, in the right way.
References:
Wikipanion, About.com, The Message Bible, Mr. Ugochukwu Ogbonna, Miss. Patience Ododo, Mr. Iyare Osagiede, and Mrs. Esta Vihishima.
"Can love be measured by gifts and sex? What happens when they are no longer available?" If love could be measured by such trivial parts of the human life, we would never be able to say that we love God. God allowed His Son to die and the gift of a life cannot be measured. That's why His sacrifice has always been and will always be enough. So why is it that people are so ready to accept the trivial gifts of this life yet repeatedly reject the Ultimate Gift of salvation that was given to them without any demands for compensation? Christ's death on the cross and what it has done for me is my reason for the daily celebration of love. And sometimes, I don't understand even that. So why would anyone want to compartmentalize or even try to measure the LOVE OF THE INFINATE SOVEREIGN GOD? Romans 8:38-39 says "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is Valentine's Day.
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