Valentine’s Day is what I like to call the “un-holiday” holiday. You don’t get a day off work, but if you’re not careful, you’ll still gain five pounds. There’s just so. Much. Chocolate. Plus there’s my favorite—those little candy hearts with messages on them. Those are the best.
I remember Valentine’s Day in elementary school when we got to set aside our regular work for a little while, break out the Elmer’s glue, and make a big ol’ red-and-pink-and-white construction paper mess on the floor. We decorated white paper lunch sacks with our names, and used cut-out-hearts in all sizes to create flowers and people and animals and whatever else struck our eight-year-old creative-genius minds. Then our teacher taped our hand-crafted mailboxes to the chalk tray, so we could add our store-bought Valentine cards and heart-shaped lollipops and heart-festooned pencils and stickers and, well, you get the idea.
We also made the heart-shaped Valentine men and women with the construction-paper accordion arms and legs, and hung them with string from the ceiling, all over the room. If you’ve never made an accordion-legged Valentine person, please go to the store right now, buy some construction paper, and make one. Then sign your name and give it to that special someone, and I promise, he or she will be delighted.
During my teen and college years, I spent my Valentine’s Days with a different kind of Valentine man. Boys, really. A new one every year, for a very long time. It’s a little embarrassing when I remember how many of those boys pledged their undying love for me. I’d smile and take the chocolate and roses. They usually didn’t last very long—the boys or the chocolates.
I’m happy to say I’ve found a lasting Valentine. Rick is my best friend. He makes me laugh. He encourages me, and makes me feel like I can accomplish anything I want. And he shows me every day, in so many ways, that he loves me. I am truly blessed.
But there’s one Valentine who trumps even Rick. On my first Valentine’s Day, He was there. At those grade school parties? He was there. He went on every date with me, and held me through every broken heart. He pledged his eternal love for me before I was born, and he’s never left me for a moment.
He laughs with me in the good times. He cries with me in the low times. He’s sent me more than a dozen roses; he’s grown fields of wildflowers for my pleasure. He is the definition of love, and though he’s a king, and could have anyone he wants, he chose me.
He wants me, on Valentine’s Day and every other day. He loves me with an everlasting love, and he shows it in a thousand ways. And I’ll let you in on a Valentine’s Day secret: He loves you too. He is madly in love with you, and more than anything, he wants to be yours.
Look around this week, and listen closely. You’ll find a shower of love notes from God. And you’ll hear him whisper, “Be Mine.”
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness,” Jeremiah 31:3.
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