February! Ah, sweet February! Tis the month that the country is abuzz with the marketing of romance and “love”- an appeal to the huddled masses to purchase all the candy, jewelry and cards possible to express L-O-V-E to the people in your life. It’s not lost on this observer that the majority of that marketing is to prompt men to buy for the women in their lives. I’m just saying. But that’s another story.

On the way to work the other day, I heard this statement: “Valentine’s Day is the romantic day of the year”. My immediate thought was, “No! I don’t think so.” That thought led me down a number of mental pathways:

One-what is the history of this day; what’s it all about? 

Two-what does it have to do with anything in the life of the believer?

So, being who I am I decided to Google(r) it and refresh my memory along with yours.

Here’s what I found:
? “Valentine’s day is the second most celebrated holiday around the world, second to New Year’s Day
? It began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus
? The most popular martyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote “from your Valentine” as a farewell to her.”

? “The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as ‘valentines’). Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.”1

So now that I’ve recapped the history my thoughts go back to the original statement about Valentine’s Day being the most romantic day of the year. While that  may be true in some sense, I’d like to offer another day that tops all the others when it comes to expressions of L-O-V-E.

My personal preference for the title of most romantic day of the year is Good Friday.

Far above and beyond romantic (“displaying or expressing love or strong affection”)2 is agape (“THE GOD KIND OF LOVE”).3 Within such love lies every aspect and speck of love we shall ever need embodied in Calvary’s Cross and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It has nothing to do with feelings or romance. It was everything to do with God’s choice to love a broken, fallen, lost and dying humanity with Himself.

“Holy God, in love, became
Perfect man to bear my blame
On the cross He took my sin
By his death I live again”.4

Dear ones, it’s no better; goes no deeper; satisfies more fully; accomplishes more completely…than this: Amazing love, how can it be? Selah!

Our challenge today in living visibly victorious is this: remember that we are loved with an everlasting love and we must take that love as Jesus did, to a world that is lost, dying and without hope.

May it be so today that we live, love and be to the glory of the One who sits of the Throne!!

Stephanie Paul

Stephanie Paul serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women’s Addiction Ministry. She has been married for almost 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. Stephanie serves alongside him as Care Group leaders in their church. They have two grown children.
Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine’s_Day
2 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/romantic?s=t
3 http://ask.reference.com/web?q=What%20Is%20Agape%20Love?&o=100100
4 http://sovereigngracemusic.org/Songs/The_Gospel_Song_(Reprise)/16