Why Just One Day ???
Valentine’s Day – The one solitary day set aside each year to celebrate love…Love of spouse, love of friends, love of family, and love of just about anything. The flower, greeting card, and candy merchants certainly LOVE this one day. While the thought is truly admirable and appropriate, why is it just this one day???
In case you didn’t know, this day was intended to be a tribute and remembrance of a loving caring man - Saint Valentine. He was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his Saints' Day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. He is also a patron saint of Terni, epilepsy and beekeepers. Saint Valentine was a clergyman in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine (Saint Valentine's Day) since at least the eighth century.
However, making this day of remembrance and celebration, a one-day event, is not exactly what we should be doing nor likely what St. Valentine expected. In fact, we should be celebrating love and sharing our love, each and every day, with everyone we encounter.
For example, the most common word sung about in all recorded music history is LOVE. The most written word in poetry is LOVE. LOVE is mentioned over 550 times in the Bible English Standard Version. I think other than Jesus and the prophets, the Beatles probably said it best in their 1967 release; All You Need Is Love. In this song they tell us:
There's nothin' you can do that can't be done Nothin' you can sing that can't be sung
Nothin' you can make that can't be made No one you can save that can't be saved Nothin' you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time It's easy
All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need
Even When Jesus was being challenged by the Clergy of His time, He reminded us of the importance of LOVE. The Evangelist Mark wrote in the Bible; Mark 12:28-31:
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,”answered Jesus, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The Apostle Paul had a great deal to say about LOVE as well. In his letters to the Romans, Paul wrote:
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Apostle John also wrote about LOVE. In John 4:7-21 he tells us:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
LOVE is so obviously critical and important to God and Jesus, to song writers, and poets, and in the case of this holiday to flower, greeting card, and candy merchants. But shouldn’t LOVE be even more important to you and all of us?
Share your love – EVERY DAY, with all those you meet and encounter. Share your LOVE with those you don’t know and those whom seem to be your enemies. Share you LOVE as much as you possibly can and make every effort to walk with LOVE and kindness for all.
Do you want to make a difference in this life and in this world, make LOVE your persona, your attitude, and your commitment to share, not on just this one day, but each and every day and forever!!!