We had a family friend who sold candy and tobacco to small area stores. Every Valentines he would come by our house and let my older brother pick out some heart shaped boxes of candy for him to give out. They were big beautiful heart boxes that were full of chocolates. If a guy gave that to you....you knew he loved you! You saw hearts! You didn't see what his little sister saw. A car pull up, open the trunk, and GIVE you a couple of boxes of candy to make multiple girls feel special! But it worked for him! Ten years later our friend would still pull up, open the trunk and now GIVE my younger brother a couple of boxes of chocolates. It worked for him too! We all laughed about that for many years.
Every February 14 candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones all in the name of St. Valentine. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, there was a Christian martyr named Valentine. He was a priest and he signed a letter "from your Valentine" to his jailer's daughter. Another legend is that St. Valentine defied the emperor's orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. The emperor did not think married men were good warriors. Valentines appeared in the 1500s but the first commercial valentine in the United States was printed in the mid 1800s. Symbols of Valentines are Cupid, the Roman god of love, hearts, and because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid February, birds also are a symbol.
As a parent we tell our kids we love them often and they say it back. But isn't it extra special when they tell us first? As a toddler when they say it out of the blue it absolutely melts our heart. That must be how God feels when His children tell Him we love Him. And just to tell Him out of the blue! I do not know about you but I do not do that enough! And I have lots of reasons to tell Him I love Him!
God loves us even though He knows everything about us - our strengths and our weaknesses, our sins and our joys. God gives us all good things. He gave us the gift of today. He gives us the air we breathe. He blesses us all day every day. He does not need our love but He desires our love. The King of Kings, The Lord of Lords, The Great I Am, The Creator of the Universe, The Prince of Peace desires a relationship with little ole me. And you.
Matthew 22: 37-40, "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Jesus, Himself, told us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord! And to love Him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind!
1 John 4: 19, "We love because he first loved us." Without God, we would not have Valentines day. He loved us so we would know what love is. Let's not make Valentines about us. Let's be intentional about loving others and God. Let's make it a habit to tell Him we love him - out of the blue. Let's make it a habit to tell Him we love him - for all the many reasons we have!
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