[This mid-week devotional reflection was prepared for Horley Baptist Church, February 2021]
How was Valentine’s Day for you? Are you dripping with diamonds, resplendent with roses or simply choked with chocolate? More likely, it was just an ordinary day, another easily-forgotten step in the interminable search for a new normality.
Who was this Valentine guy anyway? The most credible records suggest that he was a Christian priest during the third century. He was caught marrying Christian couples illegally and otherwise assisting Christians who were being persecuted at that time. In due course, like the apostle Paul, he was brought before the Roman Emperor, to whom he witnessed to his faith in Jesus. In this case the emperor was Claudius II who ultimately ordered his execution on this date in 269. The practice of sending cards was allegedly inspired by the martyr’s last note, sent to a young lady and signed ‘from your Valentine’.
Paul also wrote extensively about love, both whilst in prison and whilst free. All his recorded letters contain teaching on the subject, whether human affection, wider relationships or God’s love for us. In one well-known passage he describes how to recognise love:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” [1 Corinthians 13 v4-7 NIVUK]
But perhaps you are one of those many people who were single on St Valentine’s Day and feel left out, unloved or neglected? God has not forgotten you, He has plans for you that only someone with your particular circumstances can undertake. Does that make you feel better? Probably not, but consider what Paul wrote to a man who, in different circumstances, was missing someone from his household:
“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.” [Philemon v7]
Perhaps therein lies the secret of making the most of Valentine’s Day and all the other days of the year as well – to concentrate not on our own feelings but the feelings of those around us, all within the context of that Love which will never forsake us.
The blind pastor George Matheson expressed the thought rather more eloquently when, in 1882, he wrote:
O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
For all of us, whatever our circumstances, life will be richer and fuller as we continue to appreciate, encourage and refresh each other as members of God’s family.
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. [1 John 4 v10-11 NIVUK]
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
Thanks Steve
Thanks Steve,
A most appropriate reflection which should encourage all of us, particularly those who feel lonely at this time.
Thank you Steve, one of my favourite songs, a reminder that Father is our all sustaining provider.
Love the second verse:
Oh light that followest all my way
I yield my flickering torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
Thank you Patsy.
These time-tested hymns often remind us of truths that more modern songs have yet to recognise.