Every year when Valentine’s Day comes around, I joke that every day is Valentine’s Day, and usually within earshot of my wife in a social setting. Without fail, it induces rolled-eye laughter from the ladies, and a grin with flashing teeth from the guys. You’d hear comments such as, “ooh - you’re a brave man Frank” usually from the men, or “you’re a typical male Frank” from the wives.
I personally do not remember when we last did something befitting of Valentine’s Day on the day. If we did, it was because Valentine’s Day was nothing more than a good reminder to go on a date.
It’s too easy to buy into the anti-commercialism argument why we shouldn’t celebrate love on Valentine’s Day. Commercialism has defined for us what love is and isn’t. It measures whether we love more or less, and commercialism has redefined our values and our self-worth.
There are other perfectly sound reasons why for some, Valentine’s Day is not a positive reminder.
However, when we refocus on where and from Whom love originated from, the revelation and its truth, are both transformative and freeing.
If we know God, we ought to know what love is because “God is Love” (1 John 4:16). It is His ‘love’ that is the foundation of the love upon which we need to reflect love onto others. Anything else is meaningless and shallow.
Ask a widower who might feel lonely at times, but they’ll tell you how the love of the Father sustains them. Ask a divorcee who has found freedom by knowing the love of the Father.
Ask a son or daughter of the King who came from abuse, then found their true identity in Christ, and experienced the love of the Father.
Valentine’s Day ought to remind us of the simplest things that we should celebrate or express thanks for, not in just one day of the year, but in every day.
On this Valentine’s Day when you take a moment to reflect God’s love onto others, remember the origin of love is not from within us or where commercialism says it’s from. Rather it’s from the Father who holds the universe in His hand; “Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.” (Isaiah 48:13)
The Psalmist declares; “In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.” (Psalm 95:4-5)
This is a picture of the awesomeness of a Father whose heart is for you and for me, irrespective of where you’ve come from, or what you possess. He cares deeply about the posture of your heart and that it reflects His love first for Him, then second to the people around us.
To know love, first you need to experience His love.
In His richest blessings
Frank Po Ching