Yesterday was the annual observance of Valentine’s Day. People were lined up (as I was), in a florist shop to buy flowers for that special someone or someones in their lives. In the evening restaurants were full of couples and friends sharing a special night out together. Last week many school kids shared “Be My Valentine” greetings with their classmates. Candy hearts with “Be Mine” messages abound. Valentine cards, chocolate candy, and all manner of remembrances have been sent, given, and shared with the loves in our lives.
All of this is more than OK. All of this is an important way of jogging otherwise occupied-with-the-daily-routine-folks (all of us?) with the calendar specific reminder that on February 14than effort is made to INCLUDE ON THE AGENDA the important recognition and celebration of those people who enrich our lives and occupy a very special place in our hearts.
As in all things, there are cynics about it all. “Oh, Valentine’s Day is just a concoction of the greeting card industry, et al, to make more money.” And, there are the exploiters of the day who abuse and misuse the emotions of the heart to sell a bigger diamond or a new car. But, so it goes. And besides, most of us can distinguish a silly, winged-cupid come-on from celebrating, commemorating, and expressing deeply felt feelings for those we love. Really, can’t we?
Regardless, it is more than OK and certainly needed, to have a day – at least a very special day – to celebrate and give thanks for the precious loves in our lives.
One of the great things about Valentine’s Day is that the day is not a modern era marketing and manufactured time of contrivance for parting us with our money in an effort to express what is in our hearts to those we love. There really was a person named Valentinus who is at the base of all our present celebrations.
Valentinus was born around 226 AD. (A VERY LONG TIME AGO!) He became a priest, or perhaps a bishop, in the very early emerging church who has been remembered all these centuries – not because he was church bureaucrat (God save us) but because his life was focused on risking his life to care for others. He was a Valentine for those early Christian folks who were being persecuted by the government of Rome. He was a Valentine for all those who were being imprisoned and tortured for believing such things as we are all children of God and related to each other in spiritually in equal fashion.
Valentinus was a Valentine often discovered making intercession for broken people. He was a Valentine providing some tangible means of alleviating their suffering or caring for their families. Indeed, in a time of great struggle there was, in a very real sense, a person who was a loving Valentine. All this caring for others eventually cost him his life. The Roman government eventually caught, then killed him and buried his body on February 14, 269.
We all need Valentines in our lives; people who care for us. We need loving people who shelter us from, or diminish the impact of, the things which are hurtful, hateful, mean, and unjust. We all need someone upon whom we can call out to and say, “Be My Valentine” when life’s difficult times come our way.
There are those times when we need TO BE the Valentine for someone else. And to be sure, we all know that being such a Valentine for someone else; mitigating suffering and pain in a loved one’s life, being a tangible presence of encouragement, is very often not over and done on one day but instead, a seasonal calling.
So, thank God for the real Valentines. Thank God for all those who become for us – when we least expect it but need it the most – our Valentines. Such Valentines are love in action. They are love that lasts and love that never fails. They are witnesses to this ancient truth:
Love never ends…And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corithians 13:8,13
May God grant us, EACH DAY, the opportunity and spiritual strength to be someone’s Valentine. May God grant us, EACH DAY, the ability to see and be grateful for the Valentines who – without ever counting the cost or keeping score – just love us.
Indeed, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR!!