Feb. 15, 2010 Happy Valentine’s Day
Since this will post the day after Valentine’s Day, it seemed a no-brainer to write something on the subject of the day’s history or at least come up with a few of the standard scriptures about love. Doing a little research, I came upon a bit of news that sent me in a different direction.
Our family spent almost all of 1987 in India with Youth with a Mission. One day in February, a woman on the staff mentioned that we had received quite a lot of mail. “Oh,” I said happily, “it’s a red-letter day.” I meant that it was a day of significance, because getting mail when you’re far from home is such a wonderful thing. The woman looked at me oddly, however. “How did you know?” She was amazed, because our mail contained several Valentine’s Day cards—thus our mail was literally filled with “red letters.”
Apparently there has been a growing animosity toward Valentine’s Day in recent years among Hindu fundamentalists who consider its celebration an example of the widespread “cultural pollution of the west.” According to Wikipedia, “those who violate (laws against Valentine’s Day) are dealt with harshly by baton-holding brigands … who lurk in public places especially parks, chasing young people holding hands and others suspected to be lovers. In many parts of south India couples who are found in parks and other public places are immediately forced to marry on the spot.”
Talk about your arranged marriages…”How did you and Daddy get married?” “We were holding hands on February 14 one year and the police made us get hitched.” Not the most romantic courtship story, but since the day is named for multiple Christian martyrs, perhaps not so far out in left field as the traditional cupids, hearts, flowers, and chocolates.
Valentine’s Day may well have its origin in the pagan festival Lupercalia (Feb. 15), in which shepherds ran through villages naked, striking people as they passed in the belief that it would help with fertility and childbirth. When Christianity came on the scene, a “nicer” holiday was introduced, just as with All Saint’s Day at Halloween or Christmas at the Winter Solstice.
None of which has much of anything to do with the kind of love we each desire…the unfailing love we will only find perfectly in the person of God. The most loving human will inevitably disappoint and fail us, as we will fail others, but God’s love is never-ending. Romans 8:38-39 tells us that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NRSV).
NOTHING has the power to separate us from the love of God.
Sin has the power, however, to separate us from the God of love.
I challenge you, at this particular “Hallmark holiday” season, to do a heart audit, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any unrepented-of sin. The traditional season of Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday, continuing through Easter. The very best thing to “give up” for Lent is all that would separate us from our true hearts’ desire…God.
Since this will post the day after Valentine’s Day, it seemed a no-brainer to write something on the subject of the day’s history or at least come up with a few of the standard scriptures about love. Doing a little research, I came upon a bit of news that sent me in a different direction.
Our family spent almost all of 1987 in India with Youth with a Mission. One day in February, a woman on the staff mentioned that we had received quite a lot of mail. “Oh,” I said happily, “it’s a red-letter day.” I meant that it was a day of significance, because getting mail when you’re far from home is such a wonderful thing. The woman looked at me oddly, however. “How did you know?” She was amazed, because our mail contained several Valentine’s Day cards—thus our mail was literally filled with “red letters.”
Apparently there has been a growing animosity toward Valentine’s Day in recent years among Hindu fundamentalists who consider its celebration an example of the widespread “cultural pollution of the west.” According to Wikipedia, “those who violate (laws against Valentine’s Day) are dealt with harshly by baton-holding brigands … who lurk in public places especially parks, chasing young people holding hands and others suspected to be lovers. In many parts of south India couples who are found in parks and other public places are immediately forced to marry on the spot.”
Talk about your arranged marriages…”How did you and Daddy get married?” “We were holding hands on February 14 one year and the police made us get hitched.” Not the most romantic courtship story, but since the day is named for multiple Christian martyrs, perhaps not so far out in left field as the traditional cupids, hearts, flowers, and chocolates.
Valentine’s Day may well have its origin in the pagan festival Lupercalia (Feb. 15), in which shepherds ran through villages naked, striking people as they passed in the belief that it would help with fertility and childbirth. When Christianity came on the scene, a “nicer” holiday was introduced, just as with All Saint’s Day at Halloween or Christmas at the Winter Solstice.
None of which has much of anything to do with the kind of love we each desire…the unfailing love we will only find perfectly in the person of God. The most loving human will inevitably disappoint and fail us, as we will fail others, but God’s love is never-ending. Romans 8:38-39 tells us that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NRSV).
NOTHING has the power to separate us from the love of God.
Sin has the power, however, to separate us from the God of love.
I challenge you, at this particular “Hallmark holiday” season, to do a heart audit, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any unrepented-of sin. The traditional season of Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday, continuing through Easter. The very best thing to “give up” for Lent is all that would separate us from our true hearts’ desire…God.
Permission to use with acknowledgement of source.
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