Would the Real St. Valentine Please Stand Up?
Happy Valentine's day! How did this day start and who is Saint Valentine? A lot of confusion surrounds the history of this day. The observance of Valentine's Day began about the end of the fifth century. It replaced a pagan holiday in Rome called Lupercalia which took place in mid-February. Lupercalia included a fertility rite and pairing off of men and women.
There are actually three St. Valentines that were believed to be the namesakes of this day; all 3 martyred close to the third century.
Valentine #1: martyred for his role in protecting Christians from imprisonment, torture, and death.
Valentine #2: martyred for secretly conducting marriage ceremonies for young couples. The law at the time forbade young men from marriage because Claudius II believed single men were better soldiers.
Valentine #3: imprisoned then martyred after he befriended the jailer’s daughter and sent her a letter signed, “from your Valentine”.
Two of those Valentine’s might have actually been the same man.
It wasn’t until the 1500s that people started sending Valentine's “messages” as an observance of that day. In the 1700s commercially printed cards arrived on the scene. Today the expression of love on Valentine’s Day is not only for the romantic but for anyone desiring to communicate affection and friendship.
Valentine's Day is about expressing love. Foremost in my thoughts today is a relationship with God because His love is available to everyone. We so often long for close connections with people; with a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a spouse. God actually designed us to be in relationship with others. This time of year is particularly lonesome for many people because it often highlights the lack of relationship.
But no matter how rich our connections are with people, there is nothing that compares with the relationship of love that God invites us to. And this relationship is free to anyone that will say yes to Him. God is not a faraway entity. He is here right now and He loves you. If you could for just one tiny sliver of a moment look into His face and see Him looking at you with the love that He has for you, it would change everything about your life. He is your creator, the lover of your soul. He invites you into a relationship that will blow your mind if you say yes and step in. Many of you who have accepted Christ as your Savior have never entered into this love relationship that He desires for you. We know in our heads that He loves us but we rarely experience it in the inner part of our beings where He wants to overwhelm us with His love. And, in turn, where we are overwhelmingly in love with Him. He longs for you to step into this relationship.
I remember a time when I was first married that I was very lonely for God's love because I hadn't truly experienced it in a long time. So, while standing at my sink washing dishes, I simply asked Him to allow me to feel His love. He answered that prayer because it was a prayer that was very pleasing to Him. It was something He had longed to do for me. Soon after that, I told Him that I loved Him but I instantly felt guilty because I felt like my love for Him was so puny compared to the love He had for me, so I quickly followed that prayer with a request that He would cause me to love Him more. “I love you, Lord. Please help me to love you more,” became a prayer I prayed almost daily. And wouldn’t you know it! He answered that prayer too! I still pray that same prayer often because I'm human and my love for Him waxes and wanes along with my attention span.
As I sit here writing this I'm overwhelmed to the point of tears with His love for me. And in return, my love for Him. It is what He desires for His children. He wants so badly to let us experience that deep, deep love He has for us that goes way beyond any love we'll ever experience here on earth; even beyond the love of a mother for her child or a man for his bride. He longs for us to know him on that level.
Let Him overwhelm you with that love that's greater than anything you can imagine. He longs to do it! Just ask to be able to receive His love and to experience it on a deeper level. Then ask Him to help you to love Him more. So simple, yet so profoundly deep.
Keep on asking and watch it happen!
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV
