Why I Might Celebrate February 14th After All

I hate Valentine's Day: the often fake sentiment, the commercialism, the guilt-tripping, the needless cheap products, the sensuality, the sex. But Mom reminded me recently that God showed up for me in a very real way thirteen years ago on Valentine's Day. I'd forgotten, but I need to remember.

My middle school and high school years were dark for many reasons. I didn't really know or love myself. I certainly didn't believe others loved me, either, even my parents. I somehow believed that God could love me, though, so I'd pray and pray for signs that He did, and He in His grace, would show up. I don't know how many times I prayed for God to show His love to me while doing my job of cleaning a family's home, but over and over again, I'd come home with loads of hand-me-down designer clothes as a result.

Then there was Valentine's Day 2006. I'd visited a certain university a few weeks earlier. I felt uncomfortable there at first, but then decided I wanted to go. The price tag made that an an realistic goal, however. My dad said, “If God wants you to go, you'll go.” I believed him in theory, but waved him off, thinking that God wouldn't come through for me. But on Valentine's Day 2006, I got call from my dad's work telling me I'd won a $10,000 scholarship. Ten-thousand dollars. That alone wasn't enough to get me through, but somewhere in there, I also got a call that the school was giving me a half tuition scholarship. So I was going to my school of choice. It was pretty miraculous.

I honestly don't remember much of that day, or that season. Mom said when they asked me why all that happened on Valentine's Day, I told her that it was so I knew God loved me. I didn't know that then the way I do now, but I want to remember.

God is not a cuddly God. He's not about lacy hearts or frilly cards or three foot tall stuffed animals. But He is about love. He loves us even at our most unlovable (Rom 5:8). He loves us not because we've earned it or deserve it, but because He is love (1 John 4:16). He shows up in love not because He has to, but because He wants to.

So although I hate Valentine's Day, I'm choosing to celebrate February 14^th this year, as a remembrance of what God has done through love in my life, as and a testimony to what he wants to do in the lives of all.

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:14-15).

May I love God more deeply this year, and may His love in me spill over into the lives of the people I love, for God's honor and glory.