Valentine's Day for Cynical Unattached People

Valentine's Day was invented by a person of uncommon cruelty.

That's typically my attitude toward the 14th of February. Yes, I'm usually one of those cynical unattached people who disparage the holiday. I know it's well over a month away, but when I began seeing the pink and red hearts all over the commercialized world, I started having those sardonic thoughts by default. Thoughts of wearing black or blue or anything other than red on the 14th of next month. Thoughts of responding "Happy what day?" when greeted by those perpetually cheerful, annoyingly perky paired people. Thoughts of buying myself candy hearts, teddy bears, and red roses as bonfire material.

You see, Valentine's Day is a very biased holiday. It discriminates against people who don't have people to share it with. People who do have people think the other people are party-poopers, but the other people are really just not included. Because on Valentine's Day, everyone is supposed to be thinking about how much they love somebody special and how much they are loved by that somebody. And if you don't have somebody, why observe the holiday of love?

So there I was, scrubbing a toilet and humming melancholy tunes and mourning how I don't have anybody to think about on Valentine's Day. Then, out of the blue (pun intended), I remembered Jeremiah 31:3:

"The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.'"

This verse is directed to Israel, but it is applicable to all the people of God. Dr. John MacArthur says, in reference to this passage, "that is the kind of love that God places upon those who belong to Him eternally."

And eternally is the key. That's what completely changed my mindset about Valentine's Day in a split second. I do have Somebody to think about on Valentine's Day. Not only does He love me with a love much greater than any human could ever give, His love is eternal, everlasting.

This time next year, many of those perpetually cheerful, annoyingly perky paired people won't be cheerful or perky or paired anymore. They'll be cynical unattached people like myself. They will have discovered that they really didn't love that somebody special they were thinking about a year earlier, or maybe that that somebody didn't love them.

But the Somebody I will think about on Valentine's Day loves me with an everlasting love. An eternal love that is not conditional on my appearance, charm, or personality. A love that will last long after Valentine's Day is forgotten.

I don't intend to try to put God into human terms or equate His love with human love. But that's just it: How in the world could I be so self-centered and self-pitying about a lonely Valentine's Day when I am loved by the Lord of the universe, One whose love cannot be described... One whose love cannot be measured... One from whose love I cannot be separated?

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So I've decided not to wear black, be sarcastic, or let loose any pyromaniac tendencies on Valentine teddy bears.
Pink and red doily day is still far enough in the future that most of us would rather not think about it quite yet. I mention this now because I'll need to be reminded again before February 14th. And I'm going to need someone to hold me to that decision.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19