Day of "Love"

Valentine's Day is today. It seems like you either hate it with a burning passion or love it with an overcoming joy. If you are the first, I don't judge you. If you are the second, I am not with you. I am rather neutral to Valentine's Day. But I detest what our culture has transformed it into--a day to celebrate "couples" and to depress "singles." I feel as if we don't have any meaning attached to it anymore. (Well if you are married there is meaning... celebrating your love for each other) But still even if you are married we should ask "Why is Valentine's Day celebrated the way it is today?" Why the hearts? Why the poor little boys who would rather eat a worm that express "effection" to a girl? (No. I have sisters so I was never totally there.) Well how about a history lesson? So there is really no good answer to why Valentine's Day is celebrated the way it is. History is vague as to what happened to the original Valentine. But there is a legend. A legend that Claudius II outlawed mirage so that his army would not be "pulled away" from the front lines by their wives and children. So Valentine married couples that wanted to be married (and who just might have been Christians) illegally. He was then thrown into prison. While in prison he befriended the blind daughter of the guard, and healed her with God's help. (And she had been beseeching Roman "gods" for healing. This converted her into a Christian.) In fact legend has said that the blind daughter off the guard received the very first Valentine--from Valentine himself. After he gave the first Valentine, Valentine tried to escape to get married but was quickly recaptured. In the end Valentine was martyred. Pretty amazing legend isn't it? Well honestly even if it is just a legend, that's a good explanation for why Valentine's Day is even celebrated. Why don't people know this instead of blindly following a "holiday"? Life needs meaning. Life's celebrations need--they need I cannot express how important this is--meaning, and a reason to be celebrated. We must remember that holidays are an excellent occasion to express God's love to others. What better excuse that Valentine's Day? Go out and show God's love--and maybe, just maybe, it will be the daughter of a guard, who is blind.

~TDH

I must give all-most all the credit of the legend of Valentine to an Adventures In Odyssey episode I listened to a few years back. I don't remember the name of the episode but I highly suggest finding it and listing to it for yourself. The rest of the credit goes to Wikipedia.

p.s. an excellent place to find the "meaning" of love is 1 Corinthians 13