When I entered the classroom, there, lined across the front of the chalkboard were thirty or more handmade pouches. Each one had a name of one of my classmates. Sometimes the teacher would make us wait until later in the day to perform our acts of love. Her efforts were counterproductive to having our attention for the lesson she tried to impart. Our focus was elsewhere. Finally, we dug into our school bags, pulled out the valentine cards and began depositing them in the individual pouches for each of our classmates.

 

Most of the girls and boys received valentine cards from their secret admirers. There were those who received multiple from that certain admirer just in case they didn’t quite understand the extent of the crush!

 

Valentine’s Day, like other special calendar dates, is not something everyone looks forward to. The disillusioned teenager caught in the sick disease of sex-trafficking; the broken marriage; the lonely single who wants a mate. Some want a mate so badly they’re compromising their standards of purity and godliness in an effort to ‘find’ someone; or the bereaved widow or widower who is having their first valentine without the love of their life.

 

Some of you have your own story of romantic love gone sour.

 

You didn’t get the valentine cards at school, a twisted symbol of realities you face today.

 

Today offers a new perspective and opportunity for love. Well, it’s not new but maybe the outlook can be different. Author, Philip Yancey wrote about “Children and lovers” and said this.

Perhaps, when the secrets of the universe are revealed, we will learn an underlying purpose of parenthood and romantic love. It may be that God has granted us these times of specialness to awaken us to the mere possibility of infinite love. Of that love, our most intimate experiences here on earth are mere glimpses.

 

I encourage you to fix your gaze somewhere else … away from the pain of failed love and relationships. Look to the love that is enduring and absolutely trustworthy. Think about this. Any experience of true love you ever had is a gentle reminder from God of your “specialness”. That love is only a glimpse or a pale representation of the depth of his incomparable love for you. Be in love with Him; let Him love you.

 

The Bible tells you how much God loves you, in St. John 3:16, “This is how much…He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” (The Message, italics mine) God is really saying, “Be My Valentine”.

 

Trust these words, he will fill the void.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day