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The Heart of the Holiday
By Jennifer McClure | February 18, 2008
Valentine’s Day 2008 has come and gone, but the chocolate hearts and candies with messages of love will linger on the clearance aisle for a little while still.
Though I’m married now, it wasn’t that long ago that I was a single adult in college. Valentine’s Day wasn’t my favorite holiday nor that of my fellow single friends. In our minds, it was a day for the universe to remind us we were “lacking,” for romantic couples to be gushy in public, and for the card, flower and candy companies to cash in.
I know the first half of this month is all about love and most-often romantic love, but I want to use up some cyberspace to address any in the proud-to-be-single crowd who may struggle with their marital status during this particular season more than other times.
I’m not going to preach how God has a plan for your life, and if marriage is included in that, He’s preparing the right person for you and the right timing for you to come into knowledge of His plan. I simply want to focus on the amazing honor we have in being offered the most perfect and greatest Valentine ever and the call Christians have to be a Valentine to others.
So what is this great Valentine? I’ll give you a hint, the outside of it says something like: “To: Mankind; From: Your Father, God.”
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9, NIV).
The greatest Valentine, the greatest message or gift of love, was the act of God sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so we can have life. (Check out Genesis 22 for a picture on a human level of how God must have felt when He sent His son to be sacrificed.) Those who accept this Valentine have God’s Holy Spirit living inside of them. The Holy Spirit’s presence in the lives of those who believe in Christ is like a Valentine note written on their hearts to the world.
“You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3).
As Christians, we are Valentines on God’s behalf to a world full of people He loves, with whom He longs to have a relationship. By allowing the Holy Spirit to live through us, to transform us, it causes us to shine. Jesus said that we are the light of the world and by being that around other people they see our actions, the good deeds that God enables us to will and to do, and in the end it brings glory to God (Matthew 5:14-16).
So no matter what marital status you mark on your 2007 tax papers, remember the greatest Valentine and that you can be a Valentine for God — loving Him by loving others enough to deliver His Valentine to them.
Topics: Devotional |
February 29th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hey Jen,
Thanks for the perspective. Definitely an approach I have not taken to this typically scowled at day in the past.